


The Gray Area

by SwapAUAnon



Series: Altered KH2 AU [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Half My Own Take on the Story, Half Novelization, slight AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-08-27 06:05:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16696885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwapAUAnon/pseuds/SwapAUAnon
Summary: Roxas just wanted a normal summer vacation, but now the universe itself seems to be conspiring against him. And who's this Sora kid he keeps dreaming about? A reimagining of KH2.





	1. Prologue: The First Day

**Author's Note:**

> So, while I enjoyed KH2's Gameplay, I wasn't that fond of its story. While Roxas' portion of the game was the best part, story-wise, it still had some of its own issues. I'll be explaining my reasonings for the little and not-so-little tweaks made throughout the story in the end notes. I would like to thank thetwilightroadtonightfall for proofreading this for me and suggesting the zalgo text.  
> For now, enjoy the first day of Roxas' Summer Vacation.

* * *

 

_"_ _Sora?"_

_The brown haired boy opened his eyes, the sun shining down on his face. He sat up from his spot, and glanced over the water. He laid back down, when a ŗ̷̛͓͇̘̰̍̆͐̄̐͌̔e̷̘̝͙̻̾͑̄͂͊́͘͜͡d̵̡̪̞̰͕̬̬̑͋̅̋͒̔̚͞-̺͉͚͚̳͍͎̻͙̊̊͗̓̂͘ẖ̷̟͚̯̰̠̻̘̫̹͂̂̐̔̋͑̃͗͞a̬̗̙̜͚͊̈́̑̓̓̑͘͠į̶̹̟͍̫͈̌̑̊̍͝r̶̨̥͓̙͓͚̺͖͚̠͗͆̐͋̉͗e̵̢̪̳͙̞̗̎̏͌͋̃͛̽́͑͝d̥̗̣̰͎̦̩͙̓̓͂͌̎̿̕͢͟͠͠ ģ̶͕̘̭̱̗̻̊͑͛̿̂̑̚ĭ̘̲̹̝̠̩̒͋̉͊̕ŗ̹̖̗͕͉̼͇͑̉̈́̇̆̍̌̚l̷̛̼͉̯͖̭͕͈͔̰̣̒̅͋̽͐̃ stared down at him.  
_

_"Woah!" the boy shouted as he lurched forwards. _ _Ḵ̷̢̱̘̖̤͎̬͍͎̄̔̐͐̂̏̔a͍̲̻͓̭͕͖̥̻̓͗̉̔̿̾̇͒͐͜͝i̝̠̪̠̠͉̐̈́̓̂̎̅͊͝r̵̨̹̗͙͖̫̓̄̈́̓̔́̀̾͘i̥̥͓̳̳̰̅̎̉̅͐͛̕͘͝͠__ giggled. _

_"Give me a break K̸̨̻͍͔͎̗̒̑͛̽̇͡à̷̞̱͈̖͔̙̱̇̎̒͐̓̽͒͗͜ͅĭ̶̧̛̮̼͍̼͓̪͇̤̂̍͛̀̎̿-̡̧͓͖͍̯̏̾̉̋͗̉"  
_

  


_"Giving up already?" Riku asked._

  


_"If there are other worlds out there, then why did we end up here?"_

  


_"This world has been connected," a robed figure said._

_"Who's there?" Sora asked._

_"Tied to the darkness," the robed figure continued, ignoring the boy's question._

  


_"Sora, don't ever change," _Ḵ̷̢̱̘̖̤͎̬͍͎̄̔̐͐̂̏̔a͍̲̻͓̭͕͖̥̻̓͗̉̔̿̾̇͒͐͜͝i̝̠̪̠̠͉̐̈́̓̂̎̅͊͝r̵̨̹̗͙͖̫̓̄̈́̓̔́̀̾͘i̥̥͓̳̳̰̅̎̉̅͐͛̕͘͝͠ said._ _

_"The door… has opened." Riku said._

_"What?"_

  


_"You understand nothing…"_

  


_"Sora…" Ḵ̷̢̱̘̖̤͎̬͍͎̄̔̐͐̂̏̔a͍̲̻͓̭͕͖̥̻̓͗̉̔̿̾̇͒͐͜͝i̝̠̪̠̠͉̐̈́̓̂̎̅͊͝r̵̨̹̗͙͖̫̓̄̈́̓̔́̀̾͘i̥̥͓̳̳̰̅̎̉̅͐͛̕͘͝͠ said as sh-_

* * *

 

A boy awoke as the rising sun shone through his window. He got up with a grunt and rested his left arm on his knee.

 _Another dream about him_ , the boy thought, _But, it felt so real._ He then, by chance, glanced at his calendar, and his mood brightened considerably. "It's the first day of summer vacation!" He hurriedly threw on his white checkered jacket, a dark t-shirt, and two toned beige jeans and rushed to the usual spot to meet up with his friends, not wanting to waste a single second of his all too brief period of freedom.

* * *

 

 

> **~Twilight Town~**

* * *

 

Roxas was still deep in contemplation as he sat in the "Usual Spot" with his friends. The Usual Spot was a small area below the local train tracks, enclosed by a rusty fence in an alleyway.  It was full of old furniture, trash cans, and various boxes, but ever since first discovering the place back in grade school, Roxas and his friends had spruced it up to serve as a hang-out.

 

"Doesn't it just tick you off?" the question pulled Roxas out of his trance. The energetic blonde with a fiery look in his green eyes was Hayner, Twilight Town's regional qualifier for the Struggle Tournament and Roxas's best friend, and was currently been pacing and ranting random, incoherent sentences long since Roxas had arrived at their secret hideout.

 

"I'm sorry, what were we talking about?" Roxas asked

 

"That creep _Seifer_ decided to frame us for his latest crime!" Hayner snapped, "Pay attention Roxas!"

 

"He's seriously crossed the line this time," another boy, Pence, replied, "At least, I don't think his posse will be able to call themselves the 'Disciplinary Committee' ever again if we can prove it was them." Pence was shorter and stockier than Hayner, his blue jeans stretching way past his ankles, and wasn't the least bit intimidating, but he made up for it with his good heart and positive attitude.

 

"The sad thing is, it's not that much of a surprise," a girl sitting across from Pence, Olette, added, "The town practically worships the ground he walks on, so of course they'd believe him over his favorite targets."

 

"And now the entire town's treating us like we're the 'klepto club!'" Hayner continued, "I don't know about you, but I'd rather not spend all summer with the entire town treating me like some kind of criminal!"

 

"What exactly can we do about it though?" Roxas asked, "Seifer has this whole town wrapped around his finger." All four of the teens paused. Hayner continued pacing, Olette started tapping her foot, and Pence glanced over at the camera on top of the oil drum that rested in the corner near the couch.

 

"Hang on, we might have some evidence!" Pence remarked, "If we can get proof that we had nothing to do with it, then Seifer's argument won't have a leg to stand on!" Pence rose to his feet and ran over to the drum.

 

"You couldn't have said that three hours ago?" Hayner remarked. Pence ignored Hayner and picked up the camera.

 

"They're gone!" Pence shouted.

 

" _What?_ " Roxas and Olette jumped to their feet while Hayner stood up straight.

 

"Our, ______ are gone!" Pence answered the other three, "Wait…"

 

"Pence now's not the time to be cute. If someone stole our ______ we need to…" Hayner's hand went up to his neck, "What the…"

 

"Wait, so the thief didn't just steal the ______, but the word too?" Roxas replied.

 

"Okay, even if Seifer stole our ______, there's no way he could steal the word!" Olette replied.

 

"Well, unless someone in here's been dabbling in the occult, I'm pretty sure we have some proof that we didn't do this," Pence replied.

 

"We need to figure out what else is going on," Hayner commented, "Alright guys, let's go!"

 

Hayner, Pence, and Olette hurried out of the usual spot. Roxas attempted to follow, but was hit by a sudden headache.

 

"Huh?" his head felt light, and everything went dark.

* * *

 

_"His heart is returning. Doubtless, he'll awaken soon."_

* * *

 

Roxas woke up on the ground, the world spinning. The sound of footsteps echoed louder and louder.

"Roxas, are you okay?" Olette asked. Roxas pushed himself off the ground, and Olette offered a hand. Roxas took it, and soon he was back to his feet.

 

"I'm fine," he replied, "Just had some trouble sleeping is all."

 

"Well, c'mon, we're going to try and talk to some of our neighbors and see what they know!" Olette replied. The two hurried off, but Roxas couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

* * *

 

"The investigation starts here!" Pence announced as the trio stopped outside _Biggs' Clothes Shop_. It was a small, family run shop in the marketplace. Biggs himself was a teenager, about two or three years older than Roxas, with dark-brown eyes and dirty-blond hair. He simply glared at Roxas.

 

"I never thought you'd do such a rotten thing," he remarked, "And to think, you used to be my favorite customer."

 

"Okay, first of all, the four of us were robbed too!" Roxas replied.

 

"And how do I know you're not just saying that?" Biggs replied, "For all I know, you delinquents could've hidden your ______ in order to avoid suspicion!"

 

"Next question; while I can understand how stealing a _____ would be possible, how the heck would we steal the _word_ too?" Roxas growled, "Speaking of which, I seriously hope we get the word back soon because that just feels _weird_."

 

Biggs opened his mouth to reply, closed it, then closed his eyes and crossed his arms.

 

"Jessie's ______ were also stolen. Why don't you ask her?" Biggs deflected. Roxas' eyebrow twitched.

 

"Maybe she'll be less accusatory," Roxas replied, before turning to his friends, "Alright guys let's-" They were already at _Jessie's Accessory Store_ across the street.

 

"Hey, Roxas! Would you hurry it up?" Hayner shouted.

 

"Oh this just isn't my day," Roxas remarked.

"How could you Roxas? You used to be one of my favorite customers," Jessie started. Roxas groaned.

 

"So much for less accusatory."

 

"Wait, why are you singling out Roxas in particular?" Hayner remarked.

 

"I mean, you guys were probably his accomplices, but he's no doubt the ringleader," Jessie answered.

 

"What the heck did Seifer tell you to convince you of that?" Olette replied.

 

"Nothing. I haven't seen him at all since the theft happened," Jessie replied, "But all the evidence I could find pointed to Roxas."

 

"How would I steal a _word_ though?" Roxas asked. Jessie paused.

 

"What the heck are you talking about?" she asked.

 

"What was stolen?" Pence replied.

 

"Same as everyone, my ______ of…" her voice trailed off and her hand went up to her neck. "Okay, there is no way you could pull that off." She shook her head. "Okay, I'll try and let the others know about this, but Elmyra was also robbed. She might have information you can actually use."

 

"Thank you," Roxas replied, before turning to face his friends "Okay guys, let's…" they were already gathered around _Elmyra's Candy Shop_. "Why do they keep doing that?" He took off running before he could hear Jessie giggle.

* * *

 

"Oh why hello children, how's your day been?" Elmyra, a kindly old lady who ran the candy shop, greeted.

 

"You're not going to accuse me of robbing you, Auntie Elmyra?" Roxas asked.

 

"Oh heavens no, I know you'd never even consider such a thing!" Elmyra replied, "Besides, there's no way you'd be able to crack open my safe then seal it behind you."

 

"... Auntie Elmyra why would you keep ______ in a safe?" Pence asked. The elderly woman merely chuckled.

 

"Why, you can never be too careful, child," Elmyra replied, "Of course I'll need better security if the thief was able to steal a word from my vocabulary."

 

"Oh good. You noticed that too," Olette sighed in relief.

 

"Of course what really has me worried is Chiro," Elmyra continued, "The silly thing wandered off while I was setting up shop, and I haven't seen him since. I can only hope the thief didn't take him too."

 

_"Meow."_

 

Roxas paused, and took a couple steps back. There, on top of the green overhang, was Chiro.

 

"What are you doing up there?" Roxas asked.

 

" _Meow_ ," Chiro replied.

 

"Why don't you get down here? Auntie Elmyra's worried about you."

 

Chiro responded by jumping down, claws first, onto Roxas.

* * *

 

"Oh thank you, Roxas," Elmyra replied as she pet her cat and Olette patted Roxas on the back, "You're such a good boy."

 

"It was no problem Auntie Elmyra," Roxas replied, tears in his eyes from his brief and harrowing encounter with the cat, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the thief, would you?"

 

Elmyra brought a hand to her chin. "Now that you mention it, I did see a shape heading over to the sandlot while I was setting up shop," she replied, "At first I thought it was Chiro, but if he was up on the veranda this whole time…"

 

"Alright, then we've got our thief!" Hayner replied.

 

"Or at least, where he went after stealing everyone's ______," Olette replied, "Now can we please hurry and figure out how to get the word back?"

 

"Sure thing!" Roxas replied, before turning to face the shopkeeper, "Thank you, Auntie Elmyra!"

 

"It was nothing, child," she replied, "Now good luck!"

* * *

The four teens arrived at the sandlot just in time to see three of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee's four members conversing near some blue struggle bats: Rajini, Fuujin, and Vivi. Rai was a bulky teen, with a healthy tan from the time he had spent training in the sun, and usually wore sleeveless tops to show off his muscle. Fuu was the opposite: red eyes, white hair, and sickly-pale skin. Vivi wasn't like either one of them, simply a shadowy boy wearing a pointed hat with no discernable facial features except for his glowing eyes. He looked more like a scarecrow than a boy, though that might be because he wasn't really a human being. It was Vivi who noticed the quartet approaching and pointed to them before covering the part of his head where Roxas assumed his mouth was. Fuu and Rai turned to face them.

 

"Thieves," Fuu remarked as she pointed to them.

 

"That was real low, y'know?" Rai added, pounding his fist into his hand. Vivi merely pulled the rim of his hat over his eyes.

 

"Oh yeah?" Hayner replied.

 

"That was a nice comeback there, blondie," a voice replied as a fourth figure stepped out of the shadows. The voice belonged to the leader of the Disciplinary Committee, a teen who kept blond hair and a long scar went down between his green eyes covered with a black beanie.

 

"Seifer…" Hayner growled.

 

"You can give us back the the ______ now," Seifer replied, "They’re undeniable proof that we totally _owned_ you lamers!"

"Really, Seifer, you win one time in a best of three match and that's supposed to make you better than us?" Roxas replied, "Of course, without the ______ it would be easy for you to claim otherwise."

 

"I don't like your tone," Seifer replied before pulling out a blue Struggle bat, "But I suppose it doesn't matter what you did to the ______, even if you burned or shredded them, because I don't need them to prove that I'm _better_ than you!"

 

"Replay." Fuu added taking on a fighting stance herself.

 

"We're gonna wipe the floor with you, y'know?" Rai added, punching the palm of his own hand and cracking his knuckles. Seifer grinned as Hayner fell into his own fighting stance and Olette pushed Pence behind her.

 

"Of course, if you get on your knees and beg, I _might_ go easy on you," he remarked, "If not..." He chuckled. "Well, I'll have some fun at least."

 

Roxas' fingers curled into a fist as he walked up in front of Hayner.

 

"Roxas?" he questioned.

 

"Don't worry, I've got this," he replied. Seifer prepped a swing, and Roxas got on his hands and knees, much to the amusement of the Disciplinary Committee.

 

"Roxas!" Hayner shouted, embarrassment clear in his tone.

 

"Lost your nerve already?" Seifer taunted.

 

Roxas smirked, then dashed past Seifer, and picked up one of the discarded struggle bats with his right hand.

 

"What the?"

 

"Well Seifer? You said you wanted to prove you were better than me, didn't you?" Roxas taunted, "And you can't exactly do that if I'm unarmed." Seifer lazily pointed his bat at Roxas.

 

"Well, if you wanna do this the hard way, then fine!" he shouted, before charging at Roxas. Roxas ducked under Seifer's first swing, then dashed behind him. He parried Seifer's second blow.

 

"Stop playing around and fight me!" Seifer shouted, charging at Roxas. Roxas stepped back to avoid his second swing.

 

"No, you're not worth the effort," he said with a grin.

 

"Kneel, loser!" Seifer growled, jumping into the air. Roxas ducked under Seifer, and hit him in the side. Seifer grunted, spun around, and knocked the bat out of Roxas' hand. Roxas simply caught it with his left, and knocked the bat out of Seifer's hand. "Why you little cheat!" Roxas simply knocked Seifer over with his backswing.

 

"Alright, Roxas!" Hayner cheered from the sidelines.

 

"Wha- Seifer's just having an off day, y'know!" Rai remarked as Roxas twirled the Struggle bat in his left hand.

 

"Tournament decides." Fuu stated.

 

"Hey, Roxas!" Pence shouted. Roxas turned to face his friends, and was stunned by a flash of light. Pence grinned as he lowered the camera.

 

"A little more warning next time," Roxas remarked as he rubbed his eyes.

 

"Sorry, just had to immortalize the moment!" Pence replied. Just then, a white blur leapt down from a nearby building, grabbed the camera from Pence's hands, and glided downhill to the marketplace. "Huh?"

 

"The thief?" Olette remarked.

 

"C'mon! We can't let him escape!" Hayner shouted. Roxas hurried after his friends as Fuu and Rai helped Seifer to his feet.

 

"Oh, this is _far_ from over," Seifer growled.

* * *

 

The thief twirled and danced between buildings, past shoppers, and through a hole in the wall into the woods. Roxas ducked through the hole and into the forest, where the thief leapt from tree to tree.

 

"Get back here!" he shouted.

* * *

 

The chase came to a stop outside the Old Mansion, where the thief simply paused in front of the rusty-old gates, allowing Roxas to run up to them.

 

"Alright, guys, we finally-" it was at that moment that Roxas realized that he had left Hayner, Pence, and Olette behind at some point during the chase. " _Oh come on_!" He turned to face the thief. "Doesn't matter, you can either give back what you stole, or I'll make you give them back!"

Now that Roxas got a good look at the thief, however, he noticed something strange about them. Namely, their fingers were far too long to belong to a human being, and were bound by metal bands. The thief's body was completely concealed by white cloth, with a zipper keeping their hood shut. To make matters stranger, while the thief clearly had visible ribs, they moved like their bones were made of jelly. Roxas suddenly had second thoughts about confronting this creature on his own, especially when the zipper concealing its face opened up, and its jagged, rubbery jaws briefly popped out as it pulsated.

 

_We have come for you, my liege._

 

Roxas brandished his struggle bat, clinging to his one instrument of self defense as the creature didn't so much walk towards him but instead stretched its legs legs in his directions, pulsating with every step in his direction. When it took one step too close, Roxas took a swing with his Struggle bat. It sank into the creature, stretched it in the direction of the swing, then bounced back, the thing none the worse for wear.

"What the heck are you?" Roxas asked. The creature didn't respond, but wrapped its tendril-like arms around Roxas.

 

_We'll go together._

 

Roxas struggled to break free and felt the weight of his bat change and a tingling sensation briefly pass over his hand. Without thinking Roxas gripped the weapon with both hands and sliced through the creature. It let out an almost human shriek as its body glowed and dissolved, and the stolen photographs scattered across the grass. Roxas paused and stared at his weapon. His blue bat had been replaced with a giant silver key with a gold handle and silver chain. The token at the end of the chain depicted a circle with two smaller circles on top of it, with each circle being on opposite sides of the chain. In a flash of light and ones and zeros, it vanished from his hand, replaced with the bat once more.

* * *

 

"The others are gonna be happy to get their photos back!" Olette beamed as the quartet regrouped in the Usual Spot.

 

"Hey, we got the word back to!" Pence replied.

 

"Hey, Roxas, did you get a good look at the thief?" Hayner asked. Roxas nodded. "What did he look like?"

 

"It was like something out of a nightmare," Roxas replied. Hayner didn't press and glanced over at the recovered photos.

 

"Hey, this is from when you won the contest at Auntie Elmyra's shop!" Olette remarked.

 

"And this is you and Jessie," Hayner teased, "Hey, Roxas is there something you wanna tell us?"

 

"I was her first customer," he deadpanned, "Nothing more, nothing less. There is _nothing_ going on between us."

 

"Whatever you say, Roxas," Hayner chuckled.

 

"Hang on, all of these are pictures of Roxas," Pence commented.

 

"Huh, so that's why they assumed we were the thieves," Olette replied, "But why would the thief want all these pictures of Roxas?"  


"I dunno, maybe the thief wanted Roxas?" Pence suggested. Roxas flinched when Hayner laughed.

 

"Please, why would the thief wanna steal a bonehead like Roxas?" He asked, still chuckling.

 

"It actually tried to take me when I got separated from you guys," Roxas cut in, "I barely managed to break free".

 

Olette gasped, and Hayner paled.

 

"Hey, sorry Roxas, I didn't…"

 

"Don't worry, I don't think it'll get the chance to try again," Roxas replied, "It just screamed and vanished after I managed to break free from its grasp." Silence filled the Usual Spot.

 

"Did it get away?" Pence asked.

 

"Considering that last I saw it was cut in two, I highly doubt it," Roxas replied. Silence once again filled the room.

 

"So in other words, there's no use worrying about it," Hayner replied, "Heck Roxas, I'd argue that you probably won't have to worry about anything ever again." Roxas gave him a look.

 

"What're you talking about?" he asked.

 

"Think about it; you managed to defeat a monster that can steal words from our language," Hayner replied, "Honestly, I wouldn't want to mess with you!"

 

Roxas grinned. "I guess that's one way of looking at it.”

 

"C'mon guys, regardless of what happened, we should probably get these photos back to their rightful owners," Olette replied.

 

"Elmyra gets her photos back first, Biggs can give back Seifer's," Roxas stated.

 

"Sounds good to me!" Olette replied, "C'mon, let's go!" The quartet took off running, but the second Roxas stepped into the sun, he blacked out.

* * *

 

_"Where… Am I?" a voice asked._

_"Who are you?" Roxas replied._

_"Who are_ **_you_ ** _?"_

* * *

 

Two figures stood in a dark room, lit only by the half-dozen monitors corresponding to the single computer.

 

"Organization miscreants," one of the two figures sneered in a deep voice. A red cape was draped over his shoulders, and he wore dark brown robes on his body. A brown, leather belt wrapped around his torso diagonally, running from his right shoulder to his left hip, with three brown pouches adorning it. He had a brown scarf wrapped around his neck. Below his scarf, his robes and cape opened, revealing a circuitry pattern on a black fabric. His head was bound entirely in red bandages, and a single, yellow light peaked out from the dark void beneath, right where his left eye would be located, with his right obscured by a rusted buckle. Dark wisps leaked out of the seams in his bandages.

 

"Why would the Nobodies steal photos?" the other figure asked. He appeared to be a grown man in a black coat, his features obscured under the shadows of his hood.

 

"Those empty husks couldn't tell the difference between the photos and their target, both were ones and zeroes to them," the first figure replied as he rose from his seat. He walked across the room to the hooded man, the sound of his footsteps being the only evidence that the man had feet.

 

"But how did they steal the word?" the hooded man asked, "The word isn't programmed into the simulation, and if it had stolen the word from their vocabulary, they shouldn't have been able to know how to say it, which they clearly did."

 

"It was a security measure," the bandaged figure replied as he walked past the hooded man, "When I realized that the photos were gone, I put a filter in place that would keep the inhabitants from hearing the word. I had hoped that it would keep them from noticing, but it merely alerted them to the anomaly." He then turned to face the hooded man, his "eye" glowing far more brightly than normal. "If my plans are to work, Roxas must remain under the delusion that it is a normal boy! Otherwise, all of our efforts will have been all for naught!"

 

The glow subsided, returning to its original dullness.

"Regardless, we must locate and seal this breach, lest the Organization exploit it and take our prize from us." He chuckled darkly. "I wouldn't mind decreasing the number of husks in this world, wouldn't you agree?"

* * *

 

_Restoration at 12%._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Auntie Elmyra" as the candy-shop lady's name was taken from the novelization. The KH2 novelization might be one of the worst pieces of literature ever written, but that was a legitimately adorable moment. Biggs being a jerk is something I wasn't expecting, it just kinda happened and I decided to run with it.  
> As for why people noticed that the word was missing? Because it was kinda stupid that they didn't in canon.  
> Also, if you're wondering why the thief was described in such grotesque terms, I watched a bunch of Silent Hill videos before writing this chapter, and channeled some of my disgust from the animation of a late-game enemy that still gives me chills whenever I look at it. I wanted to create a feeling of wrongness from the way it moves and acts.


	2. Prologue: The Second Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to thetwilightroadtonightfall for beta reading. Changes will be explained in the end.

_ Sora slowly opened his eyes as something warm and wet brushed against his cheek, a yellow dog just barely visible. _

 

_ "Where am I?" _

 

_ "What happened to my home, my island? Riku, K̛̬͚̳̳̠̝͖̃̅̀́͐͆͝a̢͔̙͎̞͛̏͌̋́͑̍ͅî̩͕̦̞̹̫͚͖̘͒̊̋̕͘-̯̖̘̪̂̑̉̑̽̅̅͜" _

 

_ "Who are you?" Sora asked the stranger. _

 

_ "They will come at you out of nowhere," the strange man started, "As long as you continue to wield the Keyblade." _

 

_ Sora's attention was torn away from the battle when he heard a blast, and saw two screaming figures flying through the air, and directly at him. He tried to run, but they landed on him with a resounding CRASH! _

  
  


_ "Hey why don't you come with us?" the black dog asked, "We can go to other worlds on our vessel!" _

_ "Sora, go with them," Leon said, "Especially if you want to find your friends." _

  
  


_ "Donald Duck!" the duck introduced. _

_ "Name's Goofy!" added the dog. _

_ "I'm Sora," Sora replied, "I'll go with you guys!" _

  
  


_ "The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade," Leon explained. _

* * *

 

Roxas pulled himself up and out of his dream, a single question lingering on his mind.

"A Key… Blade?" he wondered.  _ Is that what my struggle bat turned into? _

* * *

 

Roxas' mind continued to wander as he walked to the usual spot.

"A Keyblade…" he shook his head, "How did I make it appear?" He looked around, and found a stick lying on the ground, propped up against a wall. He walked over and picked up the stick, feeling a bizarre sense of deja vu.  _ Was it in the wrist? _ Roxas gave the stick a couple of swings. When nothing happened, he sighed, then tossed it over his shoulder. He was about to leave it there, but noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Namely, the stick hit a man in a black coat. Roxas flinched, and the man turned to walk away. "Sorry about that!" he said embarassedly. The man didn't acknowledge him. Roxas turned back towards the usual spot to meet with his friends, but one thought nagged at the back of his mind.

_ Where did that guy even come from? _

 

By the time Roxas arrived at the usual spot, Hayner, Pence, and Olette had already gotten ice cream and taken their seats. Olette reached into the cooler next to her seat and held out a stick of ice cream to him. Roxas took it and sat across from Hayner. The four friends sat in silence for a couple of minutes.

"So do you think it'll always be like this?" Pence asked.

"Hmm?" Roxas looked up.

"You know, the four of us, together?" "I hope so," Olette replied, "Honestly, life was pretty dull before I met you guys." 

Hayner sighed.

"Nothing lasts forever," he remarked, "People move, we might wind up going to different colleges, and there's no guarantee that we won't drift apart for other reasons.I mean, we almost lost Roxas yesterday!" he shouted as he rose to his feet, "If that's not proof that we can't rely on things to stay the same, I don't know what is!" 

Roxas flinched at the bluntness of his words, prompting Olette and Pence to sit next to him. 

"... Too soon?"

"I was nearly abducted by a creature we know nothing about," Roxas replied, "What do you think?" 

Hayner sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"You know what, after what happened yesterday, maybe we should all head to the beach!" he suggested, "No Seifer, no stolen photos, and no existential dread! Just the four of us having some fun in the sun!" He then dashed for the exit, but then paused and turned to the others. All three of them were staring at him. "Oh what  _ now?" _

"Maybe you forgot, but we're broke," Pence replied, "Remember the Moai Head Tissue Dispensers?" 

The four of them chuckled.

"Well, good thing I know a quick way to make Munny then!" Hayner declared with a grin.

* * *

"Behold, the bulletin board!" Hayner motioned to a board on Market Street labeled  _ Help Wanted _ . "We just have to work some odd jobs and make enough Munny for tickets to the Beach!"

"We'll need five thousand munny if we're going to want to buy anything while we're there," Pence reminded, "Like watermelons."

"For the four of us, that would take two thousand munny," Olette remarked.

"In other words, pick a job and get to work!" Hayner barked.

* * *

"I'm going to need these five letters delivered to the following people in the next half-hour," the delivery woman started, "The ones underlined will need to be passed off to our mail doves to be taken to Sunset Terrace. Do you think you can pull it off?"

Roxas dropped his black and white skateboard, stepped on, and strapped on his helmet.

"I recognize the local names," he replied, "I should be able to wrap this up early." 

"Pay attention to the bands on the mail doves," the delivery woman warned as she handed Roxas the five letters, "The envelopes are color-coded to match them." 

Roxas nodded, then kicked off and skated down the hill.

  
  


The first letter he handed off to a boy just a few feet away. Then he spotted a bird with a red band on its right leg. He whistled to get its attention, then hopped up, with the red-envelope outheld. The dove grabbed the envelope out of his hand and flew off. Roxas rolled further down the hill, passing the next letter off to a man in a green shirt, then spotted the second mail dove, this one with a silver band on its left leg. Roxas grinned, whistled, then skated over to a nearby guard-rail. He hopped, landed on the rail, grinded down the rail, and launched himself into the air. Roxas could feel his heart racing, skateboarding had always made him feel so  _ alive _ . He passed the silver envelope on to the bird, then fell to the ground, skateboard tucked under his arm. He dashed on over to the mailbox by the sandlot, and delivered the final letter.

  
  


"Not bad," the delivery woman commented, before handing Roxas fifty Munny.

* * *

"So, let me get this straight, you want me to help you push this cart all the way up to your garage at the top of this slope?" Roxas asked.

"Indeed, sonny," the old man clarified, "I'd do it myself but my back is giving out." 

Roxas walked up to the cart, and tried to push. Unfortunately for him, the second it budged, it rolled back and knocked him off his feet.

"Okay, I'm going to need to get creative..."

* * *

"Mommy, why is that kid hitting that cart with a struggle bat?"

"Just ignore him, sweetie. He's clearly gone insane."

* * *

"Well, sonny, I'm gonna need a new cart, but you finally got it uphill," the old man said nonchalantly before handing Roxas his payment, "Here, I was gonna give you 150 Munny, but I'm gonna need to take back 100 just to pay for repairs."

"What was in that bag anyway?" Roxas asked. 

The old man brought a hand to his chin and hummed. “Roughly one ton of scrap metal,"he answered, "I don't know why I put it in a bag, or what I was doing with it, but at least you got to build some character!"

* * *

Twilight Town had two major sports. One was the competitive "Struggle" which the town had an annual tournament for. The other was "Grandstander", a more casual sport that the local kids enjoyed trying to one-up each other in. The goal of Grandstander was to knock the ball into the air and bounce it as many times as possible without letting it touch the ground. People loved to compare high scores, and it was primarily a performance-based sport. Which meant that there were people whom were willing to pay to see grandstanders show off. Which is why Roxas stood in the middle of the crowd of a local birthday party, a grandstander ball in his right hand and his struggle bat in his left.

"I'm going to keep this ball in the air, using only my struggle bat, and wielding it in my left hand," Roxas replied. Most Grandstanders used both their hands and their face to keep the ball in the air, and only a handful could limit themselves to only using a tool. And only a few of those experts could use their left hand to do so. Roxas tossed the grandstander ball into the air, then held his left arm out, casually bouncing it back into the air, earning gasps of amazement from the children. He won the adults over when he jumped into the air after the ball and bounced it off one of the walls and back into his bat, bouncing it off the wall a second time as he landed and knocking it back into the wall from the ground. From there, he jumped back into the air to bounce it back off the wall, then let it pass him and bounce off the wall behind him, where he spun around and bounced it off that wall a second time, landed on the ground, and then parried the ball like a sword to bounce it back into the air. He then "caught" the ball on his bat and casually "paddled" it to keep it bouncing in place. "Got any requests?" he asked, "I like a challenge!" 

He then spent the next half-hour performing trick-shots with the Grandstander ball.And, like most Grandstanders, wishing that he had argued for a higher pay.

 

"Roxas, where did you learn to do all that?" Olette asked as the party dispersed, "Seriously, you should try entering the games with some of those tricks."

"I dunno, it just felt familiar," Roxas replied, "But that's all the jobs in this part of town, so where to next?"

"Hayner's doing poster duty in the marketplace. Actually, we should probably check up on him."

* * *

"So… Uh… I kinda need to have these posters all over the marketplace," Biggs started, "Not just on Jessie's and Elmyra's shops."

"But they're the only shops anyone ever visits!" Hayner argued, "And besides that, I barely had any posters!"

"Just let me handle it," Roxas cut in, skateboard in hand, and a helmet on his head, "Just, give me some glue, a couple dozen posters, and the locations you want them hung up, and I should be able to get them up relatively quickly."

"And why should I trust you when your friend can't do it right?" Biggs asked.

"Because in the process of trying to get your photos back I was nearly abducted and you owe me," Roxas deadpanned.

  
  


Thirty minutes later, Roxas was a hundred munny richer, along with Olette and Hayner, who were paid a fair price for all their help.

* * *

Pence screamed as he sprayed the swarms of bees with bug spray, Roxas swooping in to bash a few with a fly swatter when he ran out.

"Why are there so many bees?" Pence screamed as he ran out of bug spray. Pence's short legs combined with his weight made him slower than his friends. However, when you're allergic to bees, were told that you'd be dealing with flies, and have a cloud of angry bees closing in on you instead, you tend to tell the laws of logic to leave you be and break Olette's personal record while fleeing for your life.

"Okay seriously, what is  _ with _ this alleyway?" Roxas shouted when a seventh swarm flew in.

* * *

"Sir, why do you need all this scrap metal bagged?"

"Because missy, I need to have it loaded onto my cart! If your blonde friend hadn't destroyed it that is!"

"But what do you even do with it?"

"One man's trash is another man's treasure!" the old man replied, "I'm saving up to buy a new, motorized cart! Which will really come in handy now that your blonde friend has carelessly  _ destroyed _ the manually operated one I used to use!"

* * *

"Okay so, combined with what we already had, adding in the munny we made from hanging up posters, and rescuing Pence from bees-"

"Not to mention my performance at that kid's birthday party," Roxas said with a grin, "And the mail deliveries."

"- I was getting there," Olette remarked, "Anyway, now that we've pooled all our resources, we now have, drumroll please-" 

She pulled out an orange bag, with an orange symbol on a blue circle embroidered into the front, "- Tada! Five thousand munny!"

"Alright! Now we can head to the beach!" Hayner cheered.

"First we have to buy tickets," Pence reminded him. Olette nodded, then handed her bag over to Roxas.

"Wait, why are you-"

"With all our munny in here, it doesn't fit in my pockets," Olette explained, "And, look, I love Hayner and Pence, but we both know they'd probably drop the bag. Just put it in your pocket, and give it back after we've paid for our tickets." 

Roxas nodded and put the handmade pouch in his jacket pocket as Olette and Pence took off.

"We can't be together forever, so we should make the most of the time we have," Hayner remarked. 

Roxas stared at his friend. "What's gotten into you Hayner? You're not usually this sappy."

"Sappy?" Hayner replied, "What, you mean like Olette?"

" _ I heard that! _ "

"C'mon, let's go to the beach so I can get all this existential nonsense off my mind and have some fun!" Hayner replied, before taking off after Olette and Pence. 

 

"Same old Hayner," Roxas chuckled, before taking off, "Hey guys, wai-"  _ CRACK! _

Roxas hit the ground right after the object collided with his temple, the offending projectile, the same stick from that morning, hit the ground a couple feet away. He groaned in pain as he pushed himself up, his right hand rising up to rub the bruise the stick left. However, he was swiftly pulled to his feet by a man in a black coat.

"Who are-" 

The man put a hand over Roxas' mouth, then whispered into his ear, before letting Roxas go and walking away. 

Roxas called out to him, "Hey!"

"Roxas! C'mon!" Hayner shouted from the station, "We've only got three minutes!" 

Roxas turned to face him, not noticing the hooded man fade into thin air.

"Coming!" Roxas shouted back, deciding that maybe getting the strange man's attention wasn't worth it.

* * *

"Four students," Hayner said to the ticket vendor.

"Roxas!" Pence called.

"Relax," Roxas replied, his hand going into the pocket he had place the bag in, "I have the munny right-" 

_ His pocket was empty. _

"Roxas?" Olette asked.

"I just had it a second ago!"

"Roxas-"

"Maybe I should check the other pocket..."

"Roxas!" Pence exclaimed, "Look, you had the pouch a couple minutes ago, can you think of anything that happened in that time where you could've lost it?" 

Roxas paused."I think when that stick hit me in the face and I fell over," he answered, "It might've fallen out of my pocket then!" 

Hayner, Pence, and Olette simply stood there in silence as their friend ran out the doors to the plaza

"I spent months on that pouch. If Roxas lost it…"

"Wait, when was Roxas hit in the face?" Pence asked.

"It would explain the bruise," Hayner remarked. And the trio hurried after him.

* * *

Roxas looked around as he stood outside.

"But, when else could it have..." he paused, "That creep!"

"Roxas?" Hayner cut in.

"Did any of you see where that guy in the black coat went?" Roxas asked, "I think he took Olette's pouch when he helped me up!" 

The other three froze.

"Roxas...what are you talking about?" Olette asked.

"You know, that creepy guy in the black coat?" Roxas answered, "He grabbed me and put his hand over my mouth?"

"Roxas…there was no guy," Pence told him.

"Huh?" Roxas froze, "What're you-"

"Maybe you were just seeing things, you were hit in the head by a stick, somehow," Hayner added as he walked up to him, "Seriously, who threw that thing?"

"So none of you saw the creepy guy who pulled me to my feet?" Roxas asked. 

Pence brought a hand up to his chin, deep in thought.

"No, because there was no guy," Olette replied irritatedly as she walked up to him, "And you lost my munny pouch!"

"Hang on a second," Pence cut in, "Just yesterday, some weird thing stole a bunch of photographs, a word, and tried to take Roxas as well."

"So you think I might be seeing things because of that?" Roxas asked.

"Maybe?" Pence replied with a shrug, "Either that or an invisible man only you can see decided to hit you in the face and pickpocket you, which I would normally discount as impossible, but…" 

"So either I'm going crazy, or there's another unexplainable thing after me," Roxas groaned, "Great… just great…" 

Hayner sighed. "It's too late for today's train.Let's just drop by Auntie Elmyra's for ice cream and go watch the sunset. We can try again tomorrow."

* * *

The quartet sat atop the clock tower. Hayner, Pence, and Olette were chowing down on their sea salt ice cream, while Roxas stared down at his own.

"Sorry," he murmured, for the fifth time that hour.

"Don't be, it's not your fault someone threw a stick at you," Olette replied, "Or that you've suddenly become a weirdness magnet."

"And like I said before, there's always tomorrow," Hayner added, "So cheer up already."

"That was definitely strange though," Pence commented, "I mean, even if that guy Roxas saw was a hallucination, that wouldn't explain how the munny mouch just vanished."

"So much for no existential dread," Olette added, still sour about her pouch, "Hey Roxas."

"Hmm?"

"If that guy only you can see does turn out to be real, and if he did steal my munny pouch, kindly break his hands for me the next time you see him," Olette requested, "Whoever stole that pouch is in for a world of hurt if I ever get my hands on them."

"Olette… has anyone ever told you that you can be terrifying when you put your mind to it?" Hayner asked.

"Thanks, I try."

"'Can you feel Sora?'" Roxas remarked, having already tuned out of the conversation.

"Hmm?"

"That was what that guy said to me.’

"That's… creepy." Pence shuddered.

"What's that even supposed to mean?" Hayner asked.

"I don't know!" Roxas replied, "But that name,  _ 'Sora.' _ " He shook his head. "It just sounded so… familiar."

* * *

 

_ Restoration at 28%. _

 

"Naminé, hurry," the bandaged man pleaded.

In a flash of light, the hooded man materialized in the computer room and stepped off of the pad he had materialized on.

"Was it really that hard to make a beach?" he asked, casually tossing the munny bag up in the air and catching it.

"No," the bandaged man answered, "But I could not afford to give the Organization another place to sneak into the system." 

The hooded man walked over to the bandaged man. "In that case, why not just close the train?" "And deny myself the chance to give that thing a taste of what it's like to have the rug pulled out from under your feet?" the bandaged man asked, "Don't make me laugh. The opportunity to torture that pathetic thing much too good to pass up." 

He chuckled to himself. "Roxas' existence has no value, so what better way to teach it that than to have all its hard work amount to nothing?"

"And this?" the hooded man asked as he held out the stolen munny pouch.

"We could always buy some sea salt ice cream," the bandaged man suggested, before he burst out laughing, "But in all seriousness, nothing from the simulation should be brought into the real world.  _ Delete it."  _

The hooded man pocketed the pouch. 

"Now I have a question for you," the bandaged man began, "Why did you tell it about Sora?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Maui Head Tissue Dispenser is a gag from the Manga that was too good to pass up. The bandaged man calling Roxas "it" was also taken from the Manga, where he was a straight-up supervillain with a sadistic streak. This chapter actually draws heavily on the Manga adaptation of KH2 in terms of tone, primarily because I don't want this to be all doom and gloom.  
> All in all, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you next time.


	3. Prologue: Day 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are, Day 3. I did my best to fix up the formatting, but if there's a dip in quality that's because I need to find a new Beta Reader. I didn't have a falling out with my beta of the last two prologues, it's just that a little thing called "real life" reared its ugly head.

****_ "As the key bearer, you must already know," King Triton started, "One must not meddle in the affairs of other worlds." _

 

_ "So many places I want to see," Ariel started, "I know I'll get there some day." _

 

_ "Thus, I hereby dub thee junior heroes-" Phil read. _

_ "Hey!" Donald shouted, "What do you mean 'junior heroes'?" _

_ "You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero," Phil answered. _

 

_ "I… I wish… For your freedom Genie." Aladdin announced. _

_ "Al!" Genie replied. _

 

_ "Sally, why didn't I listen to you?" Jack Skellington lamented. _

_ "Don't feel bad, Jack," Sally replied, "We'll come up with another plan for Halloween. Next time, we'll do it together." _

 

_ "POWER!" Sora shouted, stabbing his Keyblade into the ground, releasing smoke into the air. A red, serpentine dragon emerged from the smoke, then struck a pose atop Sora's head, revealing him to be small enough to ride on Sora's shoulder. _

_ "I am Mushu!" the tiny dragon announced. _

 

_ "Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?" Riku remarked. _

 

_ "Riku! What are you doing here?" Sora asked, "Did you find her?" _

 

_ "I still can't believe it," Sora remarked, "I really flew. Wait till I tell Kaiṟ̷̦̪̣͆̑̓͌̾̉͜i̛͍̠̟̘̠̙̤͇̮͆̉̇̄̅̊̋" _

_ "I wonder if she'll believe me," Sora commented, "Probably not." _

 

_ Tinkerbell flew over to Sora. _

 

_ "I'm searching too," Sora admitted. _

_ "For your light?" Cloud asked, "Don't lose sight of it." _

 

_ "Sora, where are you going?" Piglet asked. _

_ "I'm gonna go look for my friends," Sora answered, "They're waiting for me." _

 

_ "Where are Donald and Goofy?" Sora asked. _

_ "Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking about her," Riku replied as he stepped out of the way, revealing Kaiṟ̷̦̪̣͆̑̓͌̾̉͜i̛͍̠̟̘̠̙̤͇̮͆̉̇̄̅̊̋ _

  
  
  


_ In the white void, two figures appeared. Riku, and a red-haired girl, Kaiṟ̷̦̪̣͆̑̓͌̾̉͜i̛͍̠̟̘̠̙̤͇̮͆̉̇̄̅̊̋ _

_ In a white room, not that far away, a blond-haired girl in a white dress stood in front of an egg-shaped pod. _

_ Roxas felt himself detached from his body, floating in a pitch-black void. In front of him, surrounded by an aura of light, was a ghostly apparition of a girl. _

_ "Who are you?" he asked. The girl turned to face him, hiding her scarred arms behind her back. There were bags under her eyes, and her skin clung to her bones. Rather than answer him, the girl smiled and vanished. _

  
  


Roxas' eyes gradually opened as he felt the light hit his face. He sat up, and noticed a humanoid shape out of the corner of his eye. He turned to face the figure, but there was nothing there.

* * *

 

Roxas stepped into the usual spot, and glanced around the unusually empty room. However, it didn't take long for him to spot a piece of paper under a photograph on the couch Hayner usually sat on. Roxas walked over, and picked up the picture. It was of him, Hayner, Pence, and Olette, taken in front of the Old Mansion. He then picked up the paper, noticing it was a note.

_ Meet at the station. Today's the day we hit the beach - and don't sweat about the munny! _

_ ~ Hayner _

"I wonder how they got the munny," Roxas commented. He shrugged, pocketed the note, and headed out.

* * *

 

Roxas ran up the street and to the station.

"Hey!" Pence called.

"Good morning!" Olette added. Roxas turned to face the two of them, just coming up from the sandlot. Roxas shuddered as a chill passed through the air, which suddenly felt more stagnant. Olette and Pence both paused mid-step, frozen in place.

"What?" Roxas ran up to his two friends, a buzzing sound filling the air. "Pence? Olette?" Neither one was moving, not breathing or blinking. He waved his hands in front of their faces. Nothing.

"Hello, Roxas," Roxas whirled around, and saw the blond girl from his dream, looking just as sickly as she had in his dream.

"Who-" she brought a finger to his mouth then grinned.

"I needed to meet you, at least once," she remarked. She then, just as suddenly as she had arrived, brushed past Roxas and walked between Pence and Olette. Roxas' gaze followed after her until she had nearly walked out of his line of sight and drew a breathe.

"That was… Disturbing…" he shook his head, "How many freaks are gonna want to mess with me?" The girl flinched and paused in her step.

"You and him really are different," she remarked, "This is… troubling…" she then stepped around the corner and down to the market. Olette and Pence flinched as the world came unpaused.

" _ Roxas! _ " they both shouted.

"Did you two see-"

"How did you teleport?" Pence asked. Roxas froze.

"So you guys didn't notice the whole world freezing?" he asked.

"You mean like icing over?" Olette asked.

"It was more like everything paused," Roxas remarked, "And I think that creepy girl had something to do with it."

"Girl?" Pence and Olette asked.

"You two don't believe me?" Roxas asked.

"If you hadn't just teleported, I'd say you were probably hallucinating," Pence remarked, "But…"

"Look, let's not worry about it," Olette remarked, "We need to get new swimwear if we're going to the beach." Roxas walked past them without a word. "Wait, Roxas!"

"Look, I can just stop by my place to pick up my swimsuit," Roxas replied, "And I don't think that girl got too far."

"Roxas, remember what happened last time you followed someone who could defy the laws of the universe?" Pence asked.

"Look, this is the third time this week that something weird has happened to me, and I want answers!" Roxas replied, "Don't worry, if she just vanished into thin air, then I'll head right on back!"

* * *

 

He followed her to the woods between the town and the old mansion. He couldn't say he was surprised to find the girl had somehow vanished. What he wasn't expecting was for dark wisps to start swooping past him and form a circle in the air in front of him. The circle closed into a vortex, and a white tendril slithered out and pushed against the edge. A white head with a zipper over its face emerged. And a second tendril pulled out a second head. Then two more and a third. All three stretched and stuck to the ground, pulling their rubbery bodies out of the hole. One by one they rose to their feet as more of them spilled out of the corridor, pulsating and stretching towards Roxas.

"There's more of them?" Roxas commented. One of the creatures wrapped one of its bound hands around Roxas' wrist. "Let me go!" Roxas shouted as he pulled his hand free. The others continued to stretch towards him, and Roxas made a run for it.

* * *

 

The marketplace was silent and empty, and more of the creatures hopped down from the buildings. Roxas dove between the arms, feeling the sharp tendrils slap at his face and scratch his arms. He dashed into the sandlot as the creatures glided after him.

"Hey! Chicken wuss!" Seifer shouted as his Disciplinary Committee, except for Vivi, took out their struggle bats. Roxas growled.

"This isn't the time!" he shouted, right as the creatures landed.

"Who's that?" Fuu asked as Vivi ran for it.

"Don't know," Seifer replied, " _ But they've already crossed the line! _ "

 

One of the creatures flew at Fuu, another at Rai, and the third at Seifer. A fourth creature landed in front of Roxas.

"I thought the thief was the only one of these things," Roxas commented as he brandished his struggle bat. Rai was screaming and repeatedly hitting the symbol on the creature's head, not really caring that the thing only seemed to be annoyed. Fuu tried to jam her bat into the creature's mouth in an attempt to choke it, but she only succeeded in pushing the rubbery jaws into its "face". Seifer made repeated strikes at multiple points on the creature's body, the neck, the armpits, between the legs, all in pursuit of a weak point. Roxas knew from memory that the struggle bat couldn't hurt the creature, and so he tried hitting its arms and legs whenever it tried to move towards him. It made a lunged forward, attempting to grab him, and Roxas dove under its arms. The creature froze and glanced around desperately. "Hey! These things aren't that bright!" Roxas commented, "If you get out of their sight, they'll have no idea where you are!" It then spun around to face Roxas, "They can still hear though!"

"I don't take orders from you!" Seifer shouted, only for the creature to kick him in the face. Roxas dove behind his creature and tried to run, only for the Disciplinary Committee to freeze and the air to stagnate.

"Oh not again," Roxas commented as the creatures turned to face him.

"Roxas!" a voice called. Roxas growled as he spotted the girl from earlier on a nearby roof.

"Think you can call your pets off!" he snapped.

"They aren't with me!" she shouted, "Listen, you have to use the Keyblade!"

"You think I didn't figure that out from our last encounter?" Roxas shouted.

"Roxas- Look out!" the girl shouted. Roxas paused, then turned around just in time to see one dive at him. He cried out as the world turned white.

* * *

 

_ Roxas awoke on a stained-glass pillar. The image depicted Sora sleeping against the right side, in front of an island. Also engraved in the glass were the images of four other people in his dreams: Donald, Goofy, Riku, and a girl who looked somewhat familiar to Roxas. Three weapons materialized in front of Roxas: a sword, a shield, and a rod. All of them used the same symbol of a large circle with two smaller circles on top of it. It was in the hilt of the sword, on the face of the shield, and on top of the rod. Suspended in midair around the platform were the four creatures whom had been menacing Roxas. Roxas glanced between the three weapons, then grabbed the sword. _

 

_ The shield and rod vanished in a flash of light, and the four creatures stepped onto the platform. The sword in Roxas' hand, meanwhile, glowed and morphed into the Keyblade. _

_ "Well, if you wanna play that way," he commented, before charging at the nearest creature. It raised its arms and lunged at him. He dove under the creature and sliced at its waist. It let out a dying shriek as it faded away, alerting the three remaining that this keyblade warrior was not to be trifled with. Roxas dashed forward and slid under the long swipes of their arms as they twisted around and landed on their feet, turning left and right to try and get a clear visual on his movements. Roxas stabbed the closest creature through the chest, the latter unable to let out even the faintest of cries as the other two closed in. One of them wrapped its tendrils around his legs while the other went for the throat. Roxas struggled as they stood up and began walking off, flailing his arms about and, by sheer luck and blind panic, stabbed one of the creatures in the shoulder. The wounded creature screeched and the tendrils around Roxas' neck loosened before vanishing, causing the other to drop him to the floor out of surprise. Roxas rolled back onto his feet and delivered one final strike to the fourth and final monster, destroying it. In a flash of light, a door appeared before Roxas. _

Be careful _ , a voice said,  _ Beyond that door lies a completely different world. Roxas walked up to the door. But don't be afraid, the voice continued, Don't stop walking _ … Roxas paused. _

_ "Should I really listen to that voice?" he wondered aloud, "Then again..." He glanced around the pillar. It was completely flat. There was a strange light illuminating from above, and aside from the door, there didn't appear to be any way out. "Looks like I don't have much of a choice." Roxas took a deep breath, took the door's handles in his hands, and pulled it open. The second he did, he was engulfed in a bright light. _

* * *

 

_ On the other side of the door was a platform much like the first, except the blue parts were a lighter shade of blue. _

_ "'Completely different' my foot," Roxas commented as two more of the creatures jumped down. He rushed between them, delivering one strike that took down the first. The second tried to figure out where Roxas went as its companion shrieked and faded, but soon fell to the Keyblade as well. A series of rainbow-patterned stained-glass steps materialized, leading to another pillar. _

 

_ When Roxas ascended the steps, he came to a stop to realize this pillar was green instead of blue. He walked out to the middle of the platform and felt a sharp strike against the back of his head. He fell to his face and groaned in pain, noticing the familiar white legs of the creatures walking by him. He jumped to his feet, and and then leapt over the creature's grabbing arms, landing behind it. He sliced through the confused creature and the second tackled him, and pinned his right arm to the ground. It let out a hiss, cold air seeping through the seams in its pulsating jaws as its face hovered over Roxas. Roxas summoned his Keyblade to his left hand and rolled, reversing their positions, allowing Roxas to stab at the beast's mouth. It let out a pitiful whine as it vanished and more steps began to materialize. _

 

_ The second set of stairs led to an orange version of the pillar. Roxas walked out into the middle of the pillar and suddenly felt the rubbery tendrils wrap around his left and right arms. Thoroughly done with the attempted abductions, Roxas summoned the Keyblade into his right hand, stabbing that creature through the chin, then jammed his Keyblade through the other creature's chest. As soon as both of their final cries faded out, another door materialized in a flash of light. _

_ "Nowhere to go but forward," Roxas commented as he walked up to the door. He pushed the door open and was engulfed by the light. _

* * *

 

_ Roxas stepped out onto the pillar, this one as blue as the first one he had been on, and froze. Standing before him was someone his age, clad in a black coat, their back turned to him. _

_ "Who are you?" he asked. The figure turned to face Roxas, and lowered their hood. There was no face to reveal, only the same symbol that adorned the other creatures whom had attacked him. The tails of four scarves floated out of the hood, wrapping around the figure's neck as its body began to pulsate, stretch, and grow. It tore through the fabric of the jacket, growing to be as large as a house, then stared down at Roxas. Roxas took one step back, then two, then turned and ran, only to come to the edge of the pillar. Seeing no other choice, he turned to face the giant.  _

 

_ The creature stared at Roxas as black and white tendrils wrapped around him. _

_ In a flash of light, Roxas was suspended in the air, now face-level with the monster. His hands and feet were bound by white balls of energy, the Keyblade trapped in his right hand. The creature twisted and stretched around until its head was inches from Roxas' face. The boy struggled against his bonds, more and more desperately as the creature stared at him. The creature's right hand closed into a fist, and the creature's entire arm wound back. Roxas tried to kick, his legs held back by his feet, until finally both broke free at once causing Roxas to flip over the creature's punch, and letting him kick the creature in the face. His feet were pulled back into his bonds, and the creature wound and spun away, hissing. The monster floated above the void and then stretched both its arms out, smashing its hands to grasp Roxas. It pulled itself closer to him, and even though it had no face, Roxas could tell it was glaring at him. It then wound its arm back and tossed Roxas into the air. Roxas screamed as he fell back down. The creature punched Roxas with its left hand, knocking the wind out of him from the sheer force of the blow, and sent him rolling across the platform. He dropped the Keyblade to grab the edge of the pillar, barely pulling himself back onto it when the creature slipped off the pillar and into the void. _

_ "Is it over?" Roxas asked as he picked up the Keyblade. He was answered by a low rumble as the pillar tilted in the direction the creature had fallen. Roxas slid across the pillar and to the other edge. Desperate to avoid falling, he stabbed the Keyblade into the surface of the pillar and glanced down. Below him, the giant stood, with a massive ball of white energy between his hands. Roxas could feel the heat radiating from the sphere. The creature kicked off the pillar causing it to spin and throw Roxas off. The giant threw the sphere at Roxas, and Roxas, unable to think of anything better, threw the Keyblade at the sphere. An explosion knocked them both out of the air, and they both came crashing down on the pillar. _

_ Roxas came to first and grabbed the Keyblade. He ran at the creature and repeatedly slashed at its head. With a rumble, the beast rolled to its feet. It growled and swept its arms across the platform, knocking Roxas off his feet. Dark spheres formed around the creature and shot out black and white tendrils. Roxas got to his feet and jumped over one of the blasts, kicked off another, wove around one, and eventually came to reach the creature's non-face. Once there, he slashed at it one, two, three times while in midair, before the creature rolled back and floated over the void. The thing became completely horizontal, then slid across the pillar on its chest, flailing its arms to try and strike Roxas. It knocked Roxas off his feet then slid over him, before coming into contact with the other edge of the Pillar, where it suddenly stopped. Its feet stuck together,and it seemed to contract. It then pushed its arms and legs out, causing them to stretch, each one stabbed into the pillar. Darkness leaked out of the ground, as did new monsters. Each one had legs where their arms ought to be and arms where their legs ought to be, and each one marched towards Roxas. Roxas pushed himself up and ducked under another surge of black and white tendrils. The new creatures flattened themselves into white disks, then reformed into swords and lances. Roxas ducked under a slice of a blade and cried out as one of the lances stabbed into his pant-legs, pinning him into the ground. He struck at the lance and heard a strangled gasp as it faded. Three more lances bore down on him, and Roxas dodged out of the way, then cut each of the three down. The swords then flattened back into the disks, and Roxas batted them away before they rolled onto the ground, their deformed arms and legs tangled with one another. Rather than finish them off, Roxas ran at the head of the giant while the other creatures tried to untangle themselves. He hacked and slashed at the head once more. The giant had enough and pushed itself on the air, and landed on the three other creatures, crushing them underfoot. Roxas ran at it, only to once again be wrapped up in the black and white tendrils. _

_ In a flash of light, Roxas was back where he started, his hands and feet restrained by white energy, and the giant winding up a punch. Roxas struggled to pull both his arms and legs free and spun around his Keyblade over the fist and delivered a kick to the thing's non-face. The giant flew back and spun around, once again grabbing Roxas and pulling itself up to him. The creature once again threw Roxas into the air. Roxas learned from what happened last time the creature did that, and held his Keyblade above his hand. He let gravity carry him toward the creature, and delivered a strike to the creature's head. It fell over, and slid off the platform. _

_ "You're not getting away again!" Roxas shouted as he ran over to the edge. He stabbed his Keyblade into the face of the pillar as the pillar tilted. Roxas glared at the giant, and its energy sphere. With a smirk, he pulled the Keyblade loose and threw it at the energy sphere. _

BANG!

_ In a flash of light, the blast sent both Roxas and the giant flying into the opposite side of the platform. Roxas rose to his feet, picked up his Keyblade, and charged at the creature with a scream. He thrust the Keyblade forwards, stabbing the giant in the head. It let out a strangled gasp and rose to its feet. Roxas slid down the creature and landed on the ground, his Keyblade vanishing from his hands. The creature rocked back and forth, its whole body pulsating rapidly as it wailed. Dark shadows rose from the ground and began to engulf the creature. The giant's pulsations came to a sudden stop. It went limp and fell to the ground. Roxas let out a surprise yell as the darkness swallowed him. _

 

_ Roxas struggled against the darkness as it pulled him further and further down. He flailed and gasped and choked. In the midst of his flailing, however, a bony arm grabbed his wrist, and pulled. _

* * *

 

When Roxas came to, it was in a blinding white room. The girl from before was seated on a table, while Roxas laid on the ground.

"Who are you?" Roxas asked.

"My name is Naminé," the girl answered, "Sorry if I scared you. I had to make sure that DiZ wasn't lying to me when he said that you and a friend of mine are alike." Roxas pushed himself to his feet.

"Who is this friend?" Roxas asked. Naminé closed her eyes and sighed.

"Sora," she explained, "DiZ said you and him were the same, but now that I've met you... " She shook her head. "No, this isn't right. I can't keep you here."

"What are you talking about?" Roxas asked. Naminé opened her eyes and looked at Roxas.

"Your very existence is in danger Roxas," she explained, "If I had my way, I'd let you decide what to do with Sora's memories, but they won't let me help you." She brought a hand up to her chest. "I thought I was on the side of good, but the levels of cruelty they're willing to go to…"

"That's enough, Naminé," a deep voice replied. Naminé gasped and Roxas spun around. Behind him stood the hooded man.

"Sora wouldn't want this!" Naminé shouted, "If he were here, you know he'd take my side!" The hooded man walked up to them.

"If Sora were here, Roxas wouldn't be," he remarked, "And you and I both know this is the only way." Roxas glared at him.

"You're that creep who stole Olette's munny pouch!" he shouted, winding up his left fist, "Give it back!" He lunged at the figure , who simply caught Roxas' fist and tossed him aside.

"All the munny in the world can't save you," he replied as he marched to Naminé.

"Don't hurt her!" Roxas shouted.

"I wasn't planning to," the hooded figure replied, "I simply intend to make sure she doesn't stick her nose where it doesn't belong." Naminé's fingers curled into a fist and she closed her eyes.

"You're a monster, you know that?" she spat, "If Sora could see you, he'd wish you were never born." The man flinched and Roxas rose to his feet. Naminé dropped down from the table, a smirk on her face and walked past the man. "You claim that you've seen the error of your ways, promise to fix your mistakes, and then you go and keep making the same mistakes over and over again!" she lectured as she circled the man. "I took pity on you. I thought you could be better, but clearly I. Was. Wrong." She spun around to face him. "Now, I'm giving you a chance to prove me wrong! Let me and Roxas leave this illusion. Let me explain the situation to Roxas, and let him decide what to do next." The hooded man looked down at her.

"You're just like him," he remarked, "You only see the black and white, light and darkness, but me?" He opened a Corridor of Darkness, and grabbed Roxas' arm. "I have learned the powers of both! I see the gray area between! I can set this right!" He pulled Roxas off the ground as he struggled to pull his hand free.

"Let. Me. Go!" he shouted. He was answered by a blow to the back of his neck, and lost consciousness.

 

The hooded man tossed Roxas through the Corridor of Darkness, then turned to face Naminé. The girl in question cried as the Corridor closed.

"I trusted you," she said, "And you betrayed me."

"You'll thank me later," the hooded man replied as he opened another Corridor, "Besides, Roxas was never supposed to exist." He turned toward the corridor and began to step through.

"What about me?" Naminé asked, "Roxas and I are the same." The hooded man paused.

"You just keep piecing Sora's memories together," he replied. Naminé clenched her fists.

" _ I hate you. _ " The hooded man flinched, but otherwise didn't acknowledge her statement.

* * *

 

Roxas groaned, his head ringing as the world faded into view, repeated clicks and flashes of light blinding him whenever his eyes fully adjusted.

"Seifer! Strike a pose, y'know?" a familiar voice shouted. It was then that Roxas became aware of a weight on his back and growled. Roxas realized that Fuu was holding a camera, and that Rai was grinning.

"Alright, I've had enough!" Roxas shouted as he pushed himself to his feet, knocking Seifer to the ground with a shout.

"What was that for?" Seifer asked as Rai and Fuu rushed over to help him up.

"I could ask you the same thing!" Roxas shouted. "I get knocked out by those creatures, and your first instinct is to take pictures with my unconscious body?"

"No thanks for saving your life?" Seifer asked. Roxas growled as his fingers curled into a fist.

"That's enough!" a voice shouted.

"What, you're not going to thank me for saving your friend, blondie?" Seifer asked as he turned to face his newcomer. Hayner glared at him.

"I was considering it, up until you decided to try and frame it like you had defeated him," he replied, "You call yourselves the ‘Disciplinary Committee’, but really, the only people you ever 'discipline' are the ones who can see how full of it you are!" Seifer growled.

"Well someone's gonna have to keep you ruffians in your proper place," he replied, "And who better for the job than me?" Hayner laughed. "What's so funny?"

"When was the last time you actually helped someone, or solved a problem that you didn't make?" Hayner answered, "Honestly, everything you've ever done has just been to make yourself look good." Seifer growled.

"Why you little son of a-" he threw a punch at Hayner, who ducked under his fist and elbowed him in the gut. Seifer was winded and fell to the ground.

"You leave my mother out of this," Hayner replied, "Now, why don't you go home and bother someone else for a change!" Seifer growled, but complied as he, Rai, and Fuu walked off.

"Thanks, Hayner," Roxas said as he walked up to his friend..

"What were you thinking?" Hayner asked.

"Huh?"

"Did you forget what happened the last time you went and chased someone on your own?" Hayner replied, "Seriously, you're lucky that it was Seifer who got to you and not those things!" He turned away from Roxas. "Look, let's just go see the others at the usual spot."

* * *

 

Roxas and Hayner stepped into the usual spot, where Roxas was almost instantly tackle-hugged by Olette.

"So uh… How was the beach?" Roxas asked.

"We didn't go," Pence replied, "After you ran off, we split up to try and find you."

"Oh… Sorry," Roxas replied, "Well, there's always tomorrow, right?" Hayner sighed.

"Roxas… Did you honestly forget what's going on tomorrow?" he asked.

"Uh…"

 

_ "Alright! The annual Struggle Tournament!" Hayner shouted. _

_ "If we both enter, then it's twice as likely that we can bring the trophy to our hangout!" Roxas replied. _

_ "Not to mention that the winner gets to redecorate the trophy!" Olette added, "Of course, we'll have to think of something to top the four crystals." _

_ "And something next year's winner will want," Pence added. _

 

"The tournament!" Roxas shouted.

"Roxas, what is wrong with your memory?" Hayner asked. Roxas opened his mouth to reply, but paused and closed his mouth as Hayner left.

"Look, we can worry about this tomorrow," Olette replied as she stood up, "Right now, I'm physically and emotionally drained from running around town all day."

"Yeah, we should probably rest up," Pence added, "But hey! We can use the munny we could've spent on tickets on a VHS of the tournament instead!" It was then that he noticed he and Roxas were the only ones still in the usual spot.

"Sorry," Roxas said again.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're okay," Pence replied. The two of them headed out.

" _ Insolent witch! _ " the bandaged man shouted as he punched his keyboard, "How dare it interfere in my plans!" The hooded man leaned against one of the walls.

"She did stop Roxas from going to the beach," he replied, "Honestly DiZ, you should probably be thanking her."

"For attempting to steal Roxas away?" DiZ asked, "We need it if we're going to wake up Sora!"

"You also need Naminé to put Sora's memories together," the hooded man replied.

"That doesn't give it permission to make a nuisance of itself!" DiZ shouted, "And don't forget, it's that witch's fault we're in this mess in the first place! I owe it _ nothing _ !"

"What of the Nobodies?" the hooded man asked. DiZ turned away from the hooded man.

"I've located one of their breaches," he replied, "I've sealed it off, but they know where Roxas is now."

"So what should we expect?" the hooded man asked.

"I think it is time I tightened the leash," DiZ answered, "Mark my words, Sora will wipe out those abominable husks one by one!"

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, DiZ is finally named, and we're introduced to this universe's version of the hooded man. Now, he, DiZ, Roxas, and Naminé all represent different moral standings. I won't say what those standings are until the end of the prologue. I also decided to tweak Naminé's appearance so she actually looks like someone who's been suffering under abusive caretakers her whole life. Next time, the tournament.


	4. Prologue: Day 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this, I'll have gone through all of the chapters I had already written. Once this is done, I'll have to go and write Day 5 of the prologue, so the updates are gonna be somewhat slower. Regardless, I hope you enjoy today's chapter/prologue!

_ Sora soared through the stars towards a bright light. Inside the light was a library, and inside the library was an old woman and familiar, red-haired girl. Kairí̤̩͙̱͐͐̚͢͝ appeared to be only five years old, but Sora didn't recognize the library from anywhere on Destiny Islands. _

  
  


_ Sora struggled to keep his hold on the Keyblade as he felt it pulled from his grasp, but it vanished from his hand, and materialized in Riku's. _

_ "It's up to me," said Riku, "Only the Keyblade Master can open the secret door and change the world." _

  
  


_ Goofy jumped in front of Sora, and the Dark Firaga harmlessly exploded on the face of his shield. _

_ "But I'm not gonna betray Sora, either!" Goofy replied. _

_ "All for one, and one for all!" Donald added. _

_ "My friends are my power!" Sora announced. The Keyblade vanished from Riku's hand, and reappeared in Sora's. _

  
  


_ "So, your heart won this battle," the Beast observed. _

  
  


_ A man in a black coat walked through Sora. Without warning, he turned and blasted him with lightning. Sora deflected the blast with the Keyblade, and the resulting explosion caused dust to fall from the ceiling, and rubble to rain down to the floor. The hooded figure was unfazed. _

  
  


_ "It is I, Ansem," "Riku" answered. _

_ "Lead me into everlasting darkness!" _

_ "Sora!" _

_ "Forget it!" Sora remarked as he tried to push Ansem's Keyblade of Heart away, "There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!" _

  
  


_ Realizing there was only one way to wake Kairi up, Sora smiled at Donald and Goofy one more time, turned the Keyblade of People's Hearts at his own chest, and without a moment's hesitation, plunged it into his own heart. _

  
  


_ Sora felt himself sinking deeper and deeper into darkness, his own heart and body having disappeared. _

  
  


_ "This time, I'll protect you!" Kairi announced as she and Sora's Heartless were surrounded by Shadows. In a moment of desperation, she threw herself over Sora and pulled him into a hug as the Shadows lunged at the pair. In a flash of light, the Shadows were eradicated, and Sora, human again, wrapped his arms around Kairi. _

_ "Kairi," he said. _

  
  


_ "We may never meet again," Leon admitted, "But we'll never forget each other." _

_ "No matter where we are, our hearts will bring us together again," Aerith promised. _

  
  


_ "Take this," Kairi requested as she handed a charm, five seashells woven together in the shape of a star, "It's my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me." _

_ "Don't worry, I will," Sora said. _

_ "Promise?" _

_ "Don't ever forget," Kairi started, "Wherever you go, I'm always with you." _

  
  


Roxas pushed himself up from his bed with a groan.

"Right, 'promise'," he mumbled, "What good is a promise if you just forget about it?" He sighed. "Alright Roxas, time to get it together, for their sake."

* * *

 

A stage had been constructed on the sandlot, fireworks going off in the morning sky. A stage had been constructed in the middle of the sandlot, with townspeople gathered on all sides. Pence and Olette stood by the path to the alleyway.

"Who are you going to root for?" Pence asked.

"Both of them, silly," Olette answered. The audience quieted as the mayor stepped out onto the middle of the stage.

  
  


"Ladies and gentlemen, Struggle-fiends of Twilight Town! It's time for summer's most sizzling clash!" the Mayor began, "That's right! Today is the day for the Struggle and title match!" The audience began to cheer. Sports fans from all across town were taken over by excitement. "Who will be the one to break through the ranks and take on our champion, Setzer!?"

"Seifer! Y'know!" Rai shouted over the crowd, much to Seifer's exasperation.

"Quiet!" Fuu snapped as the larger boy quickly realized that perhaps interrupting the mayor wasn't the brightest idea.

"And who will leave today as our new Struggle Champion!?" the mayor continued, deciding to ignore the Disciplinary Committee for the time being. It was at this moment that last year's champion stepped onto the stage.

"SETZER!" The champion's fans screamed and soon the whole crowd was chanting his name.

"Ugh."

"You okay Olette?" Pence asked.

"I just really can't stand Setzer's attitude, okay?" Olette replied.

"Yes, the crowd is fired up, so you know what comes next," the mayor continued, "Let's..."

"STRUGGLE!" the audience continued, and the tournament had begun.

  
  


"Alright! Now it's time to introduce our combatants!" the announcer, Biggs, began, "The four bad boys who struggles their way through the preliminaries!" He pointed over to the Disciplinary Committee. "Regular finalist and head of the Twilight Disciplinary Committee: Seifer!" The audience applauded (Pence and Olette rather reluctantly). "Completely out of nowhere- Who knew he'd make it so far this year? Vivi!" The audience cheered for the youngster, who stood quietly in the corner, not acknowledging all the attention he was getting.

"Does something seem weird about Vivi to you?" Pence asked.

"Something does seem a little... 'Off' now that you mention it," Olette admitted.

"An underground favorite and local attitude problem: Hayner!"

"Hey!" The audience cheered while Olette tried to muffle her laughter at the look on Hayner's face.

"It's his first trip to the finals!" Hayner caught a glimpse of Roxas out of the corner of his eye. Roxas glanced away guiltily.

"And Struggler number four, who happens to be my absolute favorite customer," the entire audience could feel the desperation in the struggling shopkeepers' voice, "Roxas!"

_ Oh, so now I'm your 'favorite customer' _ , Roxas thought,  _ Could've fooled me. _

"Who will win this sweltering summer Struggle?" Biggs continued, "Who will take home the grand prize?" He gestured to the trophy- "The Four Crystal Trophy! And a chance to take on last year's champion for the title, Setzer!" The audience cheered as Setzer held up the champion's belt, adorned with four crystals much like the ones decorating the trophy. "It won't be long now folks! Our contestants should prepare themselves for the first match!: Hayner vs Roxas!"

"Already?" Olette remarked.

"Looks like the winner gets to fight Seifer," Pence remarked.

"Or Vivi!"

"Olette, Vivi might be adorable, but he doesn't have the experience Seifer does," Pence explained, "And I don't think Seifer will pull his punches either."

"Oh... Right..." Olette scowled, "Well, no matter who wins, we support both of them!"

* * *

 

Hayner and Roxas both walked out into the Struggle arena, both of them covered up in protective equipment. Color coded orbs were attached to the plastic armor by velcro. There were three on the helmet, one on top of the head, two by the ears. There were ten on the vest, five in the front and five on the back. Each shoulder pad had a "Struggle Ball" attached to it. There were eight orbs attached to the legs, four per leg, two above the knee and two below. There were two orbs attached to each forearm, and two attached just beyond the shoulder. There was a bag attached to each hip. The orbs attached to Roxas' gear were blue, while the one's attached to Hayner were green. The mayor handed Roxas and Hayner their struggle bats.

"Now I want a nice, clean Struggle from you boys, got it?"

"Yes sir," they both said. The mayor nodded with approval, then walked off.

"Hey, Hayner, about Yesterday-"

"You're still worried about that?" Hayner interrupted, "Seriously Roxas, we were just worried about you!"

"Sorry."

"There's no need to apologize, what's in the past is in the past, today," he entered a fighting stance, "We're gonna make history!" Roxas grinned, and took on his own stance.

"Ready?" the announcer began, "GO!"

Hayner opened by jumping straight at Roxas, and batting the ball off Roxas' left shoulder. While Hayner dove for that, Roxas swung the bat at his back, dislodging two of the orbs on the back of his armor while one on the front dropped off. Hayner grinned as he pocketed the one, then frowned when he noticed Roxas pocketing three.

"So that's how you wanna play it?" Hayner commented as he dove for Roxas. Roxas held his bat up to block the strike, and deflecting the strike. Four of the eight orbs on Hayner's arms dropped to the ground. Rather than move to collect them, Roxas delivered a follow-up strike to Hayner's chest knocking the remaining spheres on the front to the ground and knocking Hayner off his feet. When the other boy pushed himself back up, all the orbs on the back and both of the ones on the shoulder pads fell off. Roxas smirked.

"You still have to pick them up," Hayner pointed out, before charging forwards, kicking one of the green orbs out of the way and swinging his bat at Roxas. One hit knocked all three of the blue orbs off of his helmet. Roxas stumbled back a couple of steps. Hayner ran forward, and Roxas knelt down, and then delivered a swipe to his leg, knocking him off his feet, and scattering the green orbs on his legs. Roxas then dashed behind Hayner, scooped up an armful of green orbs, and pocketed them. He then picked up the green orbs he dropped and bagged those, while Hayner dashed for the blue orbs Roxas had dropped. Right after he finished bagging those, he turned to see Roxas bag the last few green orbs.

  
  


"And we have our winner!" Biggs announced, "Not even friendship will stop him from reaching the top, let's hear it for Roxas!"

"Man," Hayner commented, "You're really good at this!"

"One upside to all these strange events is that I've gotten pretty good at defending myself," Roxas bragged with a grin, "Now c'mon, Vivi's match is next and we should root for him."

"So, badly do you think Vivi's gonna lose?" Hayner asked as the quartet stood by the stage, watching Seifer and Vivi gear up. Seifer had yellow orbs velcroed to his gear, while Vivi had red.

"Hayner!"

"What, I don't like Seifer, but I'm not going to deny that he has more experience," Hayner replied.

"Vivi did do pretty well in the matches up to this point though," Olette added.

"His small size allows for more agility," Pence remarks.

"He's also a smaller target," Roxas remarked, "But that also means that there's less room for the struggle orbs on his gear, so if Seifer does land a hit it'll be easy pickings for him."

"Except the gear was designed to accommodate for his smaller size," Olette pointed out, "He has extra orbs attached to his hat to make up for the lack of shoulder-pads and shorter limbs."

"Well, we'll figure out how it turns out soon enough," Pence replied as the mayor handed the two boys their struggle bats.

"Ready?"

"Go!"

"I'll make this quick!" Seifer announced as he charged towards Vivi with an overhead swing. Vivi did a backflip to evade the attack, slid a couple of feet, then propelled himself off the ground. "Huh?" Vivi spun through the air, and struck Seifer hard enough to send the other boy tumbling, leaving a trail of yellow orbs on the ground until he came to a stop near the edge of the stage. Seifer groaned as he tried to push himself up.

"And we have a winner!"

"What!?" the announcer shouted, "I can't believe my eyes, but Vivi managed to win the match with just one strike!"

  
  


Roxas and co were also in total disbelief.

"... So what was that about Vivi not standing a chance?" Olette asked.

"Shut up," Pence replied. Seifer stormed passed the four.

"That's not Vivi," he insisted on his way out.

"You'd think he'd be more supportive of his friend," Hayner remarked. The mayor walked up to the quartet.

"Since Seifer forfeited the Struggle for third place, you've won by default," he explained, "Roxas, you and Vivi will be facing each other in the finals soon." The mayor turned and walked off.

"Ha! Did you hear that?" Hayner replied, "I beat Seifer!"

"By default," Olette pointed out.

"That means I'm better than him by default!"

"Either way, it's my turn next," Roxas remarked, "And now I don't care how adorable Vivi is, there's no way I'm holding back after seeing that!"

Vivi and Roxas stood a few feet from one another as the mayor handed them their struggle bats and walked off.

"So Vivi, where'd you learn those moves?" Roxas asked. Vivi didn't even seem to acknowledge him.

  
  


"Ready?" Vivi held his bat out ahead of himself, grasping it in both hands. "Go!"

In a blur, Vivi was already in front of Roxas' face, and hit him in the head hard enough to dislodge all three of the orbs that were attached. Roxas brought a hand up to his head as Vivi blurred around and pocketed all three before jumping forwards for a second strike. Roxas raised his own bat to parry it, but unlike Seifer, Roxas had already braced for impact, and so only the orbs on his back and chest were dislodged. That still only left him with eighteen orbs versus Vivi's thirty one.

"C'mon, just one hit," he mumbled as Vivi picked up and bagged each of the blue orbs that had been freed before propelling himself at Roxas once more. "Right, this has gone on long enough." This time, he swung the bat at Vivi while he was still in the air, deflecting him and dislodging all of the red orbs at once. Vivi rolled away, and Roxas scooped them up as quickly as he could, keeping an eye on Vivi while he did. Vivi pushed himself himself up, and the air started to buzz as Vivi himself began to flicker, twitch, and contort. "That's not normal," Roxas remarked as he picked up and bagged the last ball.

  
  


"And we have our winner!" the announcer shouted, "While it was rather one-sided in Vivi's favor for a second there, our winner is Roxas!" The crowd erupted into applause for a split second, as Vivi began to pulsate and twitch even more until silence filled the air, and everything paused, except for Roxas and Vivi.

"Vivi… What are you-" Vivi split open, melting away into a pile of cubes, as a familiar white creature rose up from within. Then a second creature dropped down from the sky, followed by a third. "Again!" Roxas shouted. Then his struggle bat began to buzz and vibrate, and in a flash of light, became the Keyblade. "Again?" Roxas shook off his confusion and fell into his fighting stance as the creatures stretched towards him.

Knowing what to do from experience, he ran right past the creatures and stabbed through the one that had popped out of Vivi. It shrieked and dissolved into particles of light. The other two turned to Roxas and stretched their arms at him. Roxas ducked under their arms and ran to the edge of the stage, hoping to vanish into the crowd. That plan came to a halt when he hit a solid-yet-invisible barrier at the edge of the stage. "The world hates me." One of the creatures wrapped its arms around his waist as the other lurked closer. Roxas kicked and swung his Keyblade, trying to hit the creature, but accidentally kicking off the barrier. The creature bent over backwards and dropped Roxas. Roxas dropped his Keyblade and caught himself with his hands as the creature flipped over him. Roxas pushed himself off the ground, landed on his feet, ducked down, grabbed his Keyblade, and tried to kick out the creature's legs from under it. The creature floated until its legs snapped back into place. Roxas slashed the Keyblade through the creature, then charged at the third one. This one wrapped one hand around each of his wrists, then pulled Roxas' arms in opposite directions, then leaned in to look the boy in the face. The Keyblade fell from Roxas' hand as the creature squeezed his wrist and then forced both of Roxas' hands above his head as it lifted him off the ground. Roxas kicked at the creature at all the places he knew should hurt it, in spot where its knees should have been, below where its belt would hypothetically be, and in the chest. Each time, the creature's body simply stretched and bounced Roxas' foot back. Finally, Roxas got enough momentum to kick the creature in the chin, causing it to emit a surprised gasp and loosen its grip on Roxas. He dropped to his feet, picked up his Keyblade, and slashed through the creature, only to hear slow clapping.

  
  


"Well well well, color me impressed," a man said as he stepped in between the crowd and through the invisible barrier on the other side of the stage, causing it to briefly shimmer as he did, "I warned them that the Dusks wouldn't be able to handle it, but they just wouldn't listen." Much like the hooded man from the previous two days, he was clad in a black coat. However, his voice wasn't as deep, and his body was thinner and lankier than the other's.

"Who are you?" Roxas asked.

"You don't recognize my voice?" the hooded man asked, "C'mon Roxas, it's me!" he threw back his head, revealing a mess of red-hair, and two teardrop markings under his eyes. "Axel! Got it memorized?" Roxas fell into a fighting stance.

"Why did you send those, things to attack me?" Roxas asked.

"Someone thought you were getting off too easy, but I told them that sending the Dusks after you might give you the wrong idea," Axel continued as he walked closer to Roxas, "But come on, let's just put this ugly business behind us and go home, partner." Roxas growled.

"Why should I trust you when I don't even know who you are?!" he shouted. Axel paused.

"Wait, what are you-" he growled, "Of course! DiZ was at Castle Oblivion." He shook his head. "Maybe I just have to jog your memory, Number XIII." He held out his left hand, and in a burst of flame a chakram materialized in his left hand. Soon the same was true for his right. He playfully spun the deadly weapons between his fingers as he sagged his arms.

"Remember  _ this _ , Roxas?" He threw one of the chakrams and Roxas knocked it away with the Keyblade. The chakram stuck into the ground, and Axel materialized next to the weapon casually pulling it out of the ground. "You clearly remember something," he commented, "Admit it, this feels familiar!" He ran at Roxas and swung his left arm at him. Roxas deflected the blow with his Keyblade.

"What are you talking about, this doesn't-" Axel delivered another strike with his right arm, and Roxas barely had time to duck under the swing. Roxas delivered a blow to Axel's waist, then another to his shoulder, and knocked him away with a blow to the head.

"Okay, now the gloves are coming off!" Axel shouted as he burst into flame, "Take this!" Roxas jumped as Axel threw the flaming chakram in his left hand, parried the one thrown with his right, and ran when Axel threw both into the ground, sending a blast of flame after Roxas. The blast knocked Roxas off his feet, and Axel teleported over to him, holding one chakram to his neck. "Now Roxas, I don't want to hurt you if I don't have to, but trust me, a few burn scars are better than what the Superior will do if I don't bring you back!" he shouted. Before raising his other hand in the air. Roxas grabbed the chakram at his neck with both hands, bit back a scream as he realized the medal was still hot, struggled against Axel to push it away, and ducked his head to the side to avoid getting hit by the flat side of Axel's other weapon.

"Again, what is wrong with you?" Roxas asked.

"You'll thank me later!" Axel insisted, "Trust me, the alternative is far, far worse." Roxas pushed the weapon away picked up the Keyblade and delivered a strike to the back of Axel's head. Then he heard a familiar buzzing sound.

"Roxas, don't listen to this man!" a voice said, "He speaks nonsense!" The voice belonged to a man whose head was completely encased in bandages, a single golden eye peeking out of the darkness.

"So you're the one behind all this," Axel commented as he stood up, somewhat shaky from that last hit, "So, DiZ, why go through the trouble of creating this whole town?"

"I need not explain myself to a  _ husk _ like yourself!" the man, DiZ, replied, "It will matter not in a few days, once Sora has erased your kind from the face of the universe!"

"Like I'm going to let that happen!" Axel shouted as he threw a flaming chakram at the man. The chakram harmlessly bounced off a barrier of ones and zeroes.

"Pitiful, just like the rest of your kind," DiZ remarked. Axel jumped between the man and Roxas.

"Roxas, come with me!" he shouted, "This creep is bad news!"

"Don't listen to a word he says Roxas," DiZ replied, "Think of the tournament, you're all set to face the champion soon."

"Seriously, you wanna convince Roxas to stay in your prison, and you use a game as incentive?" Axel asked, "C'mon Roxas, don't tell me you're going to listen to this freak."

"Roxas!"

"Roxas!"

_ "Roxas!" _

_ "Roxas!" _ Roxas gripped his head as the air began to buzz in his ears again. He dropped to his knees as he felt something hammering in his skull.

"Hayner, Pence, Olette…" He pushed himself to his feet. "Hayner! Pence! Olette!"

Axel and DiZ had vanished from the arena, but the burns on the arena were still present, as was the bizarre pile of cubes. The audience were left murmuring as

"Oh my gosh am I late!" a voice called out, and the crowd turned to see Vivi running up from the marketplace.

"Erm... Well... It looks like Roxas is our winner!" the announcer shouted.

"What? What did I miss?" Vivi asked.

* * *

 

Axel and a hooded man stood in the woods outside the old mansion.

"How did you find this place?" the hooded man asked.

"Did you really think we wouldn't notice a large number of Dusks and Creepers disappearing around here?" Axel replied, "I'll give you this, creating an entire town just to throw us off was pretty clever, but I'm not gonna leave without Roxas!" Axel summoned his chakrams to his hands. "So, if I have to destroy you to do it, then so be it!" He threw a burning chakram at the hooded man, who summoned a bat-wing sword to parry the attack. The chakrams flew right back into Axel's hands while the hooded man lowered and dismissed the blade.

"If you're so eager to disappear, then by all means," the man crossed his arms as darkness erupted from the ground behind him. A horned creature materialized behind him, its golden eyes fixed on Axel. "Vanish!" The creature charged at Axel, and threw a punch at him. Axel jumped back.

"Burn!" he shouted, throwing a chakram past the creature and at the hooded man. The creature vanished, and there was an explosion of fire in front of the hooded man. When the smoke cleared, the creature was hovering in front of the hooded man, its arms spread out. Axel, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"This isn't good," the hooded man remarked.

* * *

 

"And now that the tournament is over, we've only got one match left!" Biggs announced, "Here we are folks, a battle that only comes to town once a year: it's time for out tournament winner Roxas to go toe-to-toe with our reigning champion, Setzer!" The audience screamed at the sound of Setzer's name. According to tradition, Setzer wore the yellow orbs, the colors of the opponent Roxas hadn't faced in the tournament. The mayor walked up to the two participants.

"Alright now, as exciting as this match should be, don't forget to keep it clean boys," he said as he handed the two their bats. Both contestants nodded as the mayor walked off.

"Hey Rucksack," Setzer whispered, "If you throw the match, I'll make it worth your while."

"Huh?"

"Ready?"

"You already have your trophy, how much do you really need the championship?"

  
  


"Go!" Setzer lazily swung his bat at Roxas, who quickly deflected it.

"Hmm?" Setzer raised an eyebrow, while Roxas smirked.

"Well, if you're so sure," he deflected the swing, then struck Setzer in the chest.

"What are you doing?" Setzer asked.

"Winning," Roxas answered as he delivered a strike to Setzer's arm, and a follow-up to his shoulder.

" _ Stop that! _ " Setzer shouted as he swung his bat at Roxas. Roxas ducked under the swing dove behind him, and hit the back of his leg. Dropped to the ground, growled then spun around to try and strike Roxas, only to find him gone. "Leaving the arena is against the rules!"

"I didn't," Roxas replied as he bagged the yellow orbs on the ground, then knocked off the five orbs attached to Setzer's back. Setzer spun around and Roxas ducked under the swing, though this time the ball attached to the top of his helmet was dislodged. Setzer picked it up, but then paused as he felt Roxas' bat collide with the side of his head, knocking the three orbs attached to his helmet to the ground.

"Now hold on, you're making a big-" Roxas lightly nudged the ball attached to his shoulder, hit him in the other arm, picked up the remaining orbs, and bagged them.

  
  


"And the match is over!" Biggs announced. Setzer froze. "Let's hear it for our new champion,  _ Roxas _ !" Setzer paused opened his mouth to object, closed it, then stormed out of the arena in a huff. Hayner, Pence, and Olette barreled past the former champion to congratulate their friend. Setzer didn't stick around to see Roxas accept the Four Crystal Trophy, and while tradition dictated that Setzer be the on to pass it down, the mayor was forced to give Roxas the champion's belt due to his absence.

That evening, on the clock tower, Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Roxas sat on the clocktower with the trophy. Roxas removed the green crystal and passed it to Olette, who passed it to pence, who passed it to Hayner. He dislodged the red crystal, which he handed to Olette, who passed it down to Pence. The yellow crystal went straight to Olette, and the blue crystal he kept for himself.

"Just like we promised," Roxas said as he sat the trophy behind him with a grin.

"I got a gift for us too!" Olette announced as she took out some sticks of seasalt icecream.

"Great!"

"Finally!" Roxas said as he jumped to his feet. Unfortunately for him, he was standing on a clocktower. Additionally, the world once again paused, and the air began to buzz. His head became light as the air once again stagnated, and then the clocktower seemed to shift from underneath his own feet. He reached for Olette, but suddenly he was the only one up there. He screamed for help as he plummeted to the ground.

* * *

 

The sun set as another day on the island drew to a close. A red-haired girl walked down the path from the school.

"Kairi! Wait up!" another girl shouted as she ran up to her, "Do you feel like going to the island with me? Tidus and Wakka are all wrapped up in their ball-game and won't come with me."

"Sorry Selphie, but not today," Kairi answered as she walked farther ahead.

"Aw, why not?" Selphie whined.

"Remember those boys who disappeared a year ago?" Kairi asked.

"Boys?" Selphie questioned, "Oh, you mean Riku?"

"Yeah, he and his friend and I used to play on that island all the time," Kairi commented, "But, ever since that stormy night, I haven't been able to recall the other boy's name."

"What other boy?" Selphie asked, "As far as I can remember, it was always, you, me, Tidus, Wakka, and Riku."

"I know that in my head but," Kairi brought a hand up to her chest, "Whenever I look back, it always feels like there should be another boy there too, but I can't remember anything about him, not his name, his face, just that he existed."

"Are you sure you didn't make him up?" Selphie asked.

"The memories, the feelings, they're too real," Kairi answered, "Ever since I realized that I had forgotten the boy, I vowed not to go back to the island until I remembered him." She shook her head. "There has to be something in this neighborhood that'll help me remember."

"If you're so sure," Selphie replied skeptically.

"I'm positive," Kairi said, "Even when people vanish, there should always be some sort of evidence left behind that they existed."

* * *

 

_ Naminé? _

_ "Naminé?" Roxas asked, "What's happening to me?" _

_ "That's not my name! I'm Kairi!" _

_ "Oh, Kairi," Roxas replied, "I know you, you're that girl he likes." _

_ "He… Wait, you know him?" Kairi asked, "Can you give me a name?" _

_ "You can call me Roxas." _

_ "Great, but what about his name?" _

_ "You seriously forgot about me, Kairi?" _

_ "Huh?" _

_ "Who is this?" _

_ "Okay, I'll give you a hint," the new voice started, "It starts with an 'S'." _

_ And then everything went dark. _

* * *

 

"Kairi? Kairi!" Kairi opened her eyes as Selphie shook her, "What's wrong? You just passed out!"

"Starts with an 'S'..." Kairi remarked.

"Kairi?" Selphie asked as Kairi stood up and ran off, "You're not answering my questions, Kairi!"

By the time Selphie caught up to Kairi, the other girl was watching the tides carry a bottle out to sea.

"What's that all about?" Selphie asked.

"It's a letter I wrote," Kairi added, "I wrote it when I first realized I had forgotten the boy. I figured, if he's really real, then the tides should take it right to him."

"Kairi?" Selphie started, "You're not making any sense."

"Our hearts are connected, intertwined by fate," Kairi replied, "My message will follow that connection right to him."

"That's... Real romantic and all, but," Selphie paused, "Can you really count on that to get the letter to him?"

"Maybe it will, maybe it won't," Kairi replied, "But, I can feel him in my heart, the bond that keeps us connected no matter how far we are." She looked up at the evening sky. "No matter how many stars there are, and now matter where he is, they all share the same sky." She grinned. "Isn't that right, Sora?"

* * *

 

_ Restoration at 78%. _

"His progress is astounding," DiZ remarked, "Soon he will be ready for the awakening." He turned to face his assistant, whom was toying with the blue crystal.

"I can understand the munny pouch, but why this?" the hooded man asked, "Won't he notice that this is missing?"

"That's what I'm counting on," DiZ replied, "If I can't keep Roxas from noticing the anomalies, I may as well use them against him."

"But what happened to cause him to fall?" the hooded man asked.

"Naminé's interference with Roxas put its consciousness in contact with Kairi's," DiZ replied, "And her heart, in turn, affected Sora's. This will no doubt hasten his recovery. Now then..." DiZ stood up from his chair, "We've been collaborating on this for quite some time, but I don't believe you ever told me your name."

"My name?" The hooded man brought his hands up to his hood, and pushed it back, revealing long silver hair, dark skin, and two amber eyes. "You can call me Ansem." For reasons beyond Ansem's understanding, DiZ laughed. "It's an honor to meet you, ‘Ansem’." Ansem turned and walked off.

* * *

 

Seven hooded men gathered in the room where nothing gathers, each one seated in one of the thirteen thrones.

"So… Roxas refused to come with you," Number III remarked, "You're job is to eliminate traitors, why does he still live?"

"DiZ interfered with the mission, with Roxas' mind," Axel replied, "I'm not sure if you can even call the person I ran into 'Roxas' anymore."

"In other words, we have some good news," Number VII replied, "If Roxas doesn't have his memories, then he won't remember why he abandoned us in the first place. We simply must change the mission from recapturing a runaway to recruiting a new Nobody into our number."

"You can't be serious," Axel replied, "Shouldn't our main concern be getting Roxas back and not that,  _ thing _ DiZ replaced him with?"

"And deny ourselves the opportunity for a clean slate?" Number VII asked, "It's better that Roxas never remembers what went down here. It'll be easier to control him that way."

"But he's one of us!"

"You have your orders Axel," Number III replied as lance floated in the air next to him, "Why go against the Superior's will when you never hesitated to carry out your orders in the past?"

"Because this is Roxas we're talking about here!" Axel replied. The lance flew across the room and stabbed into the throne next to his head.

"That was a warning shot," Number III remarked, "The next one will remove you from existence." A second lance floated in the air, but vanished when the man seated in the highest throne, the Superior, held up his left hand. He then held up his right, and lightning cracked between his fingers as the void engulfed his hand.

"So… You'll turn me into a Dusk," Axel commented, "Alright, I'll bring him back." The Superior lowered his hand.

"You must retrieve him before Sora awakens," Number VII replied, "Tomorrow, go into the city and gather as many Nobodies as possible. In twenty-four hours, you will bring that army to storm DiZ's simulation to bring our thirteenth back to us."

"Very well," Axel replied, "I'll bring Roxas back, and make sure DiZ doesn't ever steal him away again!"

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It never made sense to me that the Organization would want Axel to destroy Roxas if he couldn't recover his memories. I mean, wouldn't it be better for their plans if Roxas had no memories and thus no incentive to ditch them again? Also, with Axel, we have another major player and another moral standing to take into consideration. However, I have to say, the "I know you're in there somewhere fight" would be kinda terrifying from the right perspective. I also put that fight between Axel and Ansem in, because the fact that those two never fought in canon does kinda upset me considering what is later revealed in KH2. I also imagine that Setzer bribed his way to the top, hence why he's so easily defeated by Roxas, and is such an easy boss in canon KH2. Finally, DiZ. Like I said before, I based him off of the unquestioningly evil interpretation the Manga went with, and I feel I can safely say what moral standing he represents here: He considers himself to be above moral judgement, above good and evil. In short, I took the genocidal bigot canon gave us, and emphasized his worst characteristics. I know most people try not to demonize DiZ, but honestly, I think that the story is more interesting if one of the hero's allies turns out to be undeniably evil, but still on their side. I mean, okay, in this context Roxas is the hero and DiZ is the big bad, but DiZ's evil plan involves restoring Sora to 100%. That can go to interesting places if properly explored.


	5. Prologue: The Fifth Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just finished this chapter a few days ago, and got kinda hung-up on the ending scene. You'll see why when you get there.

_Roxas sank deeper and deeper into the darkness, his body growing colder and colder. He felt a tingling sensation on his skin, and then there was light._

Roxas opened his eyes as the sun shined in his face. He pulled himself up, and tried to ignore the buzzing in the back of his head.

"That dream wasn't like the others," he remarked, "At least… I hope that was a dream…"

* * *

Roxas tried to tone out the sound of the train running overhead as he, Hayner, and Pence lounged in the usual spot. Olette, meanwhile, glared at Hayner and Pence while Roxas reflected on the events of the previous day. He looked up, and was met with Olette's icy glare.

"Hey, we've only got three days of freedom before school starts again, so don't even mention that assignment!" Hayner shouted from across the room.

"But we agreed we'd get it finished today," Olette replied.

"Did I fall off the tower yesterday?" Roxas wondered aloud.

"Hey, I know things have been weird lately, but you wouldn't be here if you did," Hayner replied.

"But that was a close call," Pence remarked.

" _Don't change the subject!_ " Olette replied, through gritted teeth.

"Okay, already!" Hayner replied, flinching away from Olette, "We'll do that stupid independent study!" Olette, seemingly pacified, smirked. "But first we'll need a topic." She crossed her arms.

"You waited this long to get started on the assignment,  _and you don't even have a topic?!_ " Olette shouted.

"Do you have anything?" Pence asked. Olette raised up a finger, paused, before crossing her arms and pouting.

"What if we wrote our report on those weird white things that I keep running into?" Roxas asked.

"Forget it," Hayner replied, "We can't do our report on those things."

"But why not?" Roxas asked. Pence stood up from his seat.

"You know how things have been weird with you and the town since the picture's were stolen?" Pence started, "Well, tomorrow, we're gonna try and get to the bottom of it." Olette nodded.

"Lots of people are gonna help out," she added with a grin.

"All that for me?" Roxas commented, "Okay, I'll go get some icecream!"

* * *

"Oh, I know what we could do!" Pence shouted as the four friends finished their icecream, "What if we did our report on the seven wonders of Twilight Town?" The other three starred at Pence. "What?"

"Aren't those just rumors?" Hayner asked.

"Look, are any of those all that implausible given all the weird things that've happened this week?" Pence countered. Hayner opened his mouth to reply, but closed it.

"You know, it would be nice to investigate something weird that doesn't bring feelings of existential dread," Roxas replied, "This could be fun!"

"And it would be nice to learn where all these rumors came from," Olette added.

"So it's decided," Pence remarked, " _Then let us begin!_ "

"The time has come, our search for the seven wonders begins," Pence started as he and the others.

"From what I heard, six of the wonders are at Sunset Terrace," Hayner remarked.

"One of them is even right at the Train Station," Olette added.

"Erm, hang on, do we even have the Munny to take the train?" Roxas asked. Hayner held up a bag.

"Lucky for us, I held on to that cash from our second attempt to get to the beach," he answered, "Now, let's get going!"

* * *

Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Roxas sat in the train in awkward silence, watching the scenery go by. Olette took her yellow crystal out of her pocket. Next was Hayner, with his green one. When Pence took out his red crystal, Roxas searched his pockets for his blue one, and found nothing. He diverted his attention back to the scenery.

* * *

The train slowed to a stop at the top of a hill.

"Olette, hurry!" Hayner shouted as he and Olette dashed out of the train.

"Hey! Aren't we supposed to be collaborating?" Roxas asked.

"Not if Olette and I can find all the wonders first!" Hayner answered as he dashed down the steps.

"Hayner, the first wonder is right here!" Pence shouted. Hayner slowed to a stop as Olette caught up with him.

"Really?"

"Yep," Pence added, "'The Spooky Steps', they say that they count different going up and down!"

"Really?" Roxas remarked, "That should be easy enough to test."

"Yeah… So easy that I actually debunked this one the last time I was here," Pence answered.

"Huh?"

"It turns out Rai was the one who started the rumor," Pence explained, "One day he decided to count the steps, and he kept getting different numbers since, well…"

"He's Rai," Hayner cut in.

"Basically," Pence said.

"... And people believed him?" Olette asked.

"Well, you know how conspiracy theorists are," Pence answered, "It didn't matter how unreliable a source Rai was, they took everything he said at face value just because it was different from what any official source said, and then next thing you know the rumor's snowballed out of control." The four stood in silence.

"So… We're wasting our time?" Hayner remarked.

"Not necessarily, since 'The Spooky Steps" are the only wonder that can be traced back to Rai," Pence replied, "There are still five other wonders on this side of town, and we've got until sunset to track them down!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Hayner replied.

* * *

"'The Friend from Beyond the Wall' is rumored to haunt one of these alleyways," Pence explained as he and Roxas walked down a back street, "Apparently, this 'friend' Grandstander Balls through solid walls to try and play with people from the normal world."

"So, just keep going into random alleyways until someone starts throwing balls at me?" Roxas asked.

"Pretty much!"

"Great…"

Tracking down the right alleyway actually wasn't all that difficult. Once Roxas walked all the way to the end of one, the run-down brick wall lit up, and a ball just started to float out of it.

"What the-" another one began to float out, just by Roxas' head, "Huh?" A third one shot out of the wall and pushed Roxas out of the alleyway, and back into the street. " _Stop that!_ " Roxas threw the ball back at the wall, which it bounced off of, causing the wall to flash and ḑ̸͇̙͕̤̥̗̠̋̓̒͆͘͠i̛͙͖͈͕͓͎͌̀̍̾͛̽̚̚͠s̢̧̛̥̖̜͈͚̼̖̻͐̅͛̉̌̈͐ẗ̨̞̗̦̺̬̟͈́̏̑̕͢͝͝ͅơ̧̞̖͉̪͈͉̹̈́́͛̂̑r̴̡͖̭̣̩͔̤̣͐͋̊͗͝t̵̡̰̪̱̖̭͇̊̆̈͐̊̚̕ͅ.

* * *

Pence walked up to Roxas and saw the ball bounce back.

"Oh, so it was just you bouncing the ball off the back wall," he commented.

"Pence I literally just got here," he commented.

"Regardless, that's one rumor solved!"

"Pence that explains absolutely nothing!" The two walked away, completely missing the Dusk slither out of the wall.

* * *

"They say that this tunnel is haunted," Pence explained, "Sometimes you can even hear what the locals call 'The Moans From the Tunnel'."

"... Are you sure we should be investigating this one?" Roxas asked.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of ghosts!"

"That's not what I'm afraid of running into!"

Roxas trudged through the tunnel, following the noises.

"Honestly, that barely even sounds like a moan," he grumbled, "Then again, I suppose that could just be the rumor mill making things weirder than they need to be." He paused as he rounded a corner, and found himself in a square room, with a stream of water running across the sides of the room. He spotted a short figure standing in the middle. "Vivi?" he asked. Vivi held up a Struggle Bat in response, as did his friend, Vivi, and his other friend, also Vivi. "Uh…" Two more Vivi's appeared. "Maybe I should go!" Roxas attempted to run out of the room, only to run face-first into a barrier of what appeared to be solid air. The Vivi's lunged.

Roxas parried the blow of one of the Vivi's, only for a second to strike him in his side, he swung his bat, and the Vivi instantly exploded into pixels upon being struck. A second Vivi struck him in the back of the head, and Roxas tossed that one off into the wall, shattering him as well. Roxas deflected the blow from a third Vivi, and hit him over the head, causing him to shatter. The remaining two Vivi's both jumped at Roxas, who, tired of this nonsense, nonchalantly swatted through them with his struggle bat, causing pixels to rain on the floor.

T̢̢̼͔̖̮͕̪̎́̇̿͘͢͝ͅh̴̯͇̩̝̲̲̪̞̤̯̉̄̍̇̇̅̏͘e̶̩̱̲̙͎͇̝͈̓̑́̂̊͐̏͞ s̶̡͈̤̯̞̫͒̌̇̂͋͋͜c̢̘͔̬̝̃̄̅͐̈́à̵̖̳͔̼̍͋̾͢͞ṱ̷̛̤͇͍̜̰̰̹̿̓͌̃͋̏͛͠͠t̸̡͇͇̖̣̪̙̗͍͔̓̎̽͊́̊͘͝͠e̶̞͖̙̭͕̿̐̉̚͡͡r̬͈̭̝̼̟̻͕̥̹͗̓̈́̊̈̐͞͞ě̴̢͙̳̼̬͕͓̒͛͑́̃͟͞͝͡͡d̦̠̻͌̓͂̊͘͜͟ p̨̡̩̘̳͓̳͕͍̈͒͋͐͟͠į̷̨̛͖͔̬͕̻͉̭͑̒͒͆̀̒͝͡x̵̦͇͕̫̦̜̜̝̀͊̄̋̐̒ͅe̵̺̗̠̦̳͌͑̒̊͜͠ĺ̸̢̬̠̻̀̒̊͛̆̏͘͢s̨̼̱͖̞͙̠̏͗̆̒͘͟ f̶̛̩̟͍̝̩͈̤͍͚̯͛́̊͋̃̀͘̕l̶̰̲̖͔̭̗̹͍͑̀̄̑̀ị̧̧̡̠̥̜̬̪͕̓̈́̇͋̾͘͘͠͞͝c͖̖̦̭̺̲͌̔̀̑͒̄̆̈́̀ͅk̢̛̰̠͚̣̳̥͉̓̀̓̒̽̀̆̔͜ę̤̜͖̝͉̾̅̂͂̚ŗ̛̣̙̳̼̲̎̓̊́̈́̃̚͜͡ͅẻ̵͙͈̮͇̗̺̐͗̕͢͜͞d̸̢͍̘̩̳̭̣̾̒͌́̂̄̚͘͝ a̵̲̬̥̦̬̲̳͕̬̽͆̔̃̋͢͠͞n̢̜̟̻͉̼͐̀́̒͗͊͟͠͞ḑ̨̛̤̳̪̉̉̏͑̓̈́͢ f̸̮͍̻̜̝͔̖̊̿̄͐̑͘̕͝ȃ̸̝͕͈̝̻̹͖̲̞̓̄͗̈́̃͘͠͡d̸̹͕̣̫̑̊͋̋̾͛͌̆͘͘͢e̵̡̨̹̱̩̮̠̺̮͋̄̓͗̿̊̚͠d̸̠͓̺̘̤̠͚͇̠̒̅̑͛̔̊̕͝ å̶̛̘̤̙̘̲͇̓̀̾̕͝ș̸̛̪̙̱͍̬̥͛̏̕͝ ţ̶͇̞͈̲̖̬́̋̌͌́̎͗̓̍͝ḩ̷̢̛̼̦̗͐̓̂̋̍̐̉͢͝ę̠̠̰̤̟̭͐͒̓̾͑͛̾̽͂͞ w̷̤̮̠̥͖̩̖̎̀͂͛̐̅͘͟ͅo̖͍̺̯̘̘̓̀́̒̀̍͐͝r̴̤̞̥̹͎̀͊̂̏͗ļ̢͔̜̩̦͓̥͕̌̉̎̌̓͘d̷̨̰̖̭̗̤̣̄́̉́̈ b̴̡̳̻̤̯̹̀͆̊̓̄̂͒͞ȇ͕͇̠̣͈̙͙̭͒̍͛͋̆̕͘͠͝ģ̴̨̨͙̯̭͒͗̔͒̍̀̚͞͠à͍͓̯̝̏̀͒̒͗̋̂͟͞ñ̢̡̛̻̩̟̫͈͍̻̜̄͛̾̓̄̅̏ t̵̫͈͚̙̫͒̌̋̔̃̽͐̀̇͛ǫ̵̨̳̹̹̤̙̀̎̓̿́̈̈̕͢ b̨̨͕̯̥͚̌̈̊̇͊͑̇̉̉͜͢͝l̵̡̞̹̠̙̪̜͖̃̈̿͛̋ư̴͖̮͕̲͇͐̄̉̊̐͛͘̕͝r̜̞̰̯̲͕̳̺͂́̓̌͑.̷̧̛̜̗̦̗̽̎̓̿̍͆̄͘͜͟͢

* * *

Roxas glanced around the room, as Pence and Vivi walked in.

"So you've been training down here every day?" Pence asked.

"Yeah, don't know why everyone assumes ghosts were behind it!" Vivi replied, "But I gotta prepare for next year's tournament, y'know?"

"Uhuh…"

"Wait, then what was that noise I was following?" Roxas asked as he ran up to the two.

"Probably just echoes," Pence answered.

"And all the other Vivi look-a-likes that were just down here and then vanished?" Roxas asked.

"I just got here!" Vivi answered.

"But… They just…"

"C'mon Roxas, let's check out a different rumor," Pence replied as he led Roxas away. None of them noticed the Dusk materialize out of Vivi's shadow and slither away.

* * *

"So people supposedly see their doppelgangers at the waterfall in this garden?" Roxas asked.

"Yep, it's called 'The Doppelganger'," Pence answered.

"Wow, straight to the point," Roxas commented.

"Mind checking it out while I jot down some notes from our previous findings?"

"Oh why not?"

Roxas starred at the waterfall.

His reflection starred back.

"How the heck did this become a rumor?" Roxas asked.

His reflection answered by walking out of the waterfall and through him. Roxas turned to face his reflection, who was engulfed by shadows, turning into a shadowy copy of Roxas. "Shadow Roxas" brandished a Struggle Bat and charged at Roxas. Roxas parried his double's strike.

"Oh you have got to be joking!" he remarked. Shadow Roxas ran at Roxas and struck him with his Struggle Bat. Roxas retaliated by striking his doppelganger in the shoulder. "Now would be a good time for that 'Keyblade' thing to appear!" The Keyblade didn't appear, and Roxas found himself parrying another strike. "Would you go away!" Roxas shouted as Shadow Roxas applied pressure to the block, pushing down. Roxas deflected the blow, and then struck his double over the head, and Shadow Roxas lost consciousness.

H̵͉͍͔̻̫̅̌̊̍̇͢e̵͙͇̼̻̰̝̳͐͑̓͘͟͢͞ c̴̠̜͍̜̥̭͇̳͓͂̓̇͗̒̚͡͡o̧̜̤̤͕̔̀̂͘̚͜͞l̡̗̣͓̳͒̈́̊͒̒͞l̷̛͈̘̞̮͇̻̱͖͍͑͒͌͗̄͠a̷̞̱̞͈̹̺̽̽͊̄̔̚̕p̴̧̧̢̰̼̭͈̂̌̉̓̑̄͝s̵̡̼͓̤̼̟̭̯̦͆̔̾́͒̈́e̴̥͙̰̥̠̳̔͆̈́́͑͡͡͞d̰͍͓̤̬̯̭̤̆̈̄̓͝ ĩ̡̭͔̬͉̯̯̥̆̀͛͜͠ͅn̛̝̦͙̘̰͎͍̘̄͒̓̏ẗ̴̨̬̪̟̳̞̝̜̜̘́͊͐͐̀ǫ̣̱͍͖͆̾̂̾̚͡͝ p̶͈͓̮̳͚̳̻̬̂̏̌͊̈͢͡i̵̛̱͈̪͎͋͂̆̆̊̂̄͟͟͡x̤̤̰̯̳͋̅͒͒̈́̏̅͟͡e̷̡͈̬̤̰͓̜̘͚͂͆̌̿̌̾l̝̠̠̱̹̙̫̠̞̆̆͐̈̊̌̾́ͅs̫̰͚͙̪̺͒̑͒̑̌̊͑̑͘͡.̶̼̻̞̳̲͇̪̇̿̐̐̂͊  
  


* * *

"Roxas!" Pence shouted. Roxas groaned as Pence helped him to his feet. "You okay?"

"What hit me?" Roxas replied. Pence was about to answer, but then paused as he noticed the reflections.

"Oh wow," Pence commented as he dropped Roxas, "It's scary how real those reflections look. Still, I don't see how the rumor about evil doppelgangers walking out of the waterfall and attacking people started, unless someone had a weird dream they confused with reality."

"You couldn't have mentioned that before leaving me alone?" Roxas asked as he helped himself back to his feet. The two walked off, not noticing that Roxas' reflection lingered, and turned into a shadow.

* * *

"The last two wonders are at the top of the hill," Pence explained, "One of them is 'The Animated Bag', a creepy bag that moves around!"

"So what am I supposed to do?" Roxas asked, "Find a moving bag and pin it down?"

"Exactly!"

"Oh of course."

Roxas glanced around the pavilion on top of Sunset Hill. There was a single bag, surrounded by four trash cans.

"There's only one bag here, and it doesn't look very animated," Roxas commented. The bag hopped away from him, towards one of the trash cans. "Why does this keep happening to me?" He ran up to the bag, which kept hopping away from him, and jumped on top of it, grabbing onto the neck of the bag for dear life as it began to lurch and buck around, trying to throw him off. He held on tight as it leapt over trash cans, rammed into the fences, and gradually picked up speed. Finally, after a couple minutes of struggle, the bag went lax, and Roxas loosened his grip.

"Finally," he commented, "That wasn't so bad." He untied the sack, deciding to try and see what was inside

Ằ̧̻̙͖̱͖̰̝́͑̈́̐́͋̀ m͕̬͕̥̝̞̄̓̐̌̒̓̃̋͟e̸̻̫̞̝͍̲̖̝̞͌̃͒͂̏͐̚͟͝͝s̵͕̭̦̦͖̩͈̥͈̻̀̀̓̐̂̒s̢̛̖̼̫͇̩̪̠͊͋̇͑̚ o̷̡̱̪͉̤̣̔̑̈́̋̇͗̒͌̚̕f̣̩̮̝͉̻͋͂̈̈́͋̿͜ ,̛̠͚͖͙̳̔̌͂̎͆͢ ơ̵̢͇̖̱͇̦͔͍̞̍͊̑̐̈̂̄̈n̤̱̭̝̥̥̋̒̍̈́̀̽̏͆̈͞e̶̢̬͖̖̬̭͊͛̃͒͊̄̾̈̚͡s̴͖͈̟͈͓̪͈̮̃͋̐̓̃͛̔̉̕͡ ă̴̧̗̯̱͚̠͍̗̂̒̿͆͟n̢̧̳͔͎̜̦̓̋̒̑́͒̿͐͋d͉͕̳̥͕͉̩̉́̄͂̕͞͠ z̫̻̦̝̼̭̳̀̆̂̀͒̽̏̕͡͞ͅe͖̟͍̗͐͒̆̈́̓͢r̷̻̮̘̳̎̊̃̌͢͝ŏ̶̰̟̮͙͇͕͈̙̮̊͘͘͝ë͉̖̯̥͕́́͋͊̀̏͟͟s̵̨̪̭̪͈̣̻͍̣̲̅͋̅̅̊ s̸̙̫̦̥̳̯̞̦̔̋̾̋͒͟͢͝p̵̤̥̘̟̖͒̽͋̂̍̿͢͝͠͡͠i̴̦̼̖͎͈̘̞̲̿̆̐̔͐̎͑̔͟͡ľ̢̟͙̜͇̳̻̼͈̈́̑́͐̏͞l̷͓͉̭͎̫͂̈̓̓̈̔̊̕͝ȩ͈͓͕̭̮̤͒̌̈̓̏͐̽̕͢͟d͚̪͓͔̯͇̩̙̆́̈̒̈̃ͅ ơ̵̡̰̰̜̯̪̟͔͂͒̅̔͢͠u̡̱̠͕̜̻̻͍̝͊͛͋̒͘ͅt̜̗̲̯̜̣͛̃̒̈́͋̉͊͆̕͝ ỉ̩̟͍̞̻͖̰̯͈̈́̈͊̇̐̇n̼̥͍͚̫̗͓̰̗̲͑͊̍͐̄́t̷͚̬͓̜̾̀̌̀̏̋̓͑͘͘͜ö̸̬̻̠̼̔́͐̒͊͛̈̿͟ ȃ̴̪̯̰̭͍̲̗̦̑͑̑̂͂́̀͘ͅ b̸̡̮̗̲̣̱͚͓̰̱̔̓̆́̂͛̈̃̚l̸͙͙̗̫̟̗̗̘͐͊̏̕͠o̸͉̥͇̩̤͊̄̎̓̐̌͑̌̚̕b̷̩̰̼͍̭͓͎̌̏͋̋͂̏͡ͅ o̸̧͕̮̜̰̜̭̤͈͌̑͛̽͟͝f̢̪͍͈͇̬͇̅͒̉̏͝ͅ c̸̡͈̦̗̭̮͛̏̔́̕͡ǫ̯̝̪͓͙͈̖̍͆̍̐͑̂̐̿d̨͈͉͎͛̌̏̇́͠ͅͅe̶̜̟̪̜͎̎͊̀̀́̇̅.̷̢̧̛̛͉̺̱̲̟̊̾̍̓

* * *

Roxas and Pence starred at the dog that was in the bag.

"How long has that dog been in there?" Roxas asked. Pence shrugged as the dog walked off. Neither one of them saw the pixels melt off the dog, revealing it to be a Dusk, which slivered away, unseen.

* * *

"That last wonder wasn't very 'wonderful,'" Roxas commented as he and Pence walked down the hill, towards Hayner and Olette.

"I understand, but the next one is gonna make up for it," Pence replied, "Wonder Number 6: 'The Ghost Train.'"

"A strange train with no passengers pulls into the station, nobody knows where it comes from, or where it goes," Hayner replied.

"There are rumors that it takes ghosts to the next life," Olette replied, "They say that you can see it from Sunset Hill."

"We just came from there!" Roxas commented.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Hayner asked, "Let's go!"

* * *

The four friends sat at the top of Sunset Hill for hours.

"Hey losers!" Seifer called as he and his Disciplinary Committee walked up to the hill.

"We're waiting for the ghost train," Pence answered. Seifer laughed.

"Whatever, enjoy wasting your summer away staring at some traintracks!" Seifer replied as he walked off.

"Seifer, wait!" Hayner shouted.

"Relax, tomorrow, I know," Seifer replied, "I'm not an idiot."

"Huh?" Roxas remarked.

"Seifer's gonna be helping with our investigation tomorrow," Olette answered, "Did we forget to mention that earlier?"

"Really?" Roxas replied, "So you do have a heart after all!"

"Oh no, I still hate your guts," Seifer replied, "I just don't like the idea of these things running amok in my town!" Roxas crossed his arms as Seifer walked away.

"What do you have against me anyway?" he asked. Seifer paused.

"Something about you just always seemed off," he answered, "Like you're not supposed to be part of this picture." Ţ̶̟̦̮͎͎̬̽̐̿͂͂̇ḥ͓̳̣̳̞̮̽̽̐̔̒́e̲͚̥̬̥̯͈̹̾̍͂́̊͘͝͠͝ͅ s͙̫͈͈̗̓͋̔͒̊̄̅͡͝k̸̢̧͕̝͎͔̣̖̲͖̃̃̈́̄̒̎y̢͔̤̦̘̆̅̏̈́̾͛̓͡͠ f̴̧͙͎̩̖̼͈̌̈̅̍̐̀̃̕l̫̠̖̰̘̗͖̞̭̇̽̊̕͢͞i̸̢͖̙̲̖̙͛̑͐̑̓̊͋͘͠c̶̛̛̹̰̤̗̯̾̈́͐̌͂̔k͇͓̙̣͙̘͔̿̏̀͆͐e̢̧̡̝̮̻̤̰̣͓̒̎́̃̈͂́͘͡r̴͈͖̘̺̩̫͌̑̄̿̄͐͘͡ę̶̘̗̘͎͓̤͓̖̱̃̒̎̈́͞d̵͙͙̖̱̋̈́̈̔͆͐͊̊͘͟͢͞.̺͓͓̲̝̘̘̈́͗͗̊̀̒͋̚͜ "Do you ever get the feeling that you're not where you're supposed to be?"

"Huh?"

"Just figured I'd ask, 'Roxas,'" Seifer replied, "Seeya." The four turned their attention back to the tracks as the Disciplinary Committee walked away. It was at that moment that Roxas noticed something purple and gold moving along the train tracks.

"There it is!" Roxas called out. The train was purple, with gold stars painted on the sides. "It looks empty too!" He ran away from the fence.

"Uh, Roxas…" Hayner started.

"C'mon! If we hurry to the station we might be able to catch it!" Roxas shouted as he took off, running for the station.

* * *

The "Ghost Train" was waiting for Roxas when he arrived.

"Finally, a wonder that isn't a waste of time," he remarked as he walked up to the train, "C'mon guys, let's check this out!"

"Uh, Roxas," Hayner commented.

"What is it?" Roxas asked.

"You'll be hurt," Olette replied.

"Huh?" Roxas turned around, and the train was gone, "What the-"

"The train will be arriving shortly," a voice announced over the intercom as another train pulled in.

"Am I… Am I losing my mind?" Roxas asked.

"C'mon," Hayner replied, "We've wasted enough time as it is."

* * *

The four friends walked out of the train station, the clock tower ticking above.

"What about the report?" Roxas asked.

"The wonders were bogus, the end," Hayner answered.

"We'll have to put a bit more effort into it than that," Olette replied, "But if we spin it into being about how urban legends form, then we can still pass!"

"What about the seventh wonder?" Roxas asked.

"Oh just let it go, Roxas," Hayner replied, "If every wonder has been a hoax so far, what are the odds the seventh would be real?"

"But-"

" _Drop it_!" Hayner hissed, "Now c'mon!" He and Olette walked off.

"You know, I was planning on investigating the seventh wonder tomorrow," Pence explained as he walked up to Roxas, "But if we're gonna finish the report today, we should probably get it out of the way now."

"What is the seventh wonder anyway?" Roxas asked.

"'The Lonely Girl,'" Pence answered, "Supposedly, she's a ghost who haunts the upper floors of the old mansion, even though nobody's lived there for years."

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Roxas asked, "Let's check it out!"

* * *

Roxas and Pence walked up to the locked gate, the old mansion looming overhead.

"She's said to appear in the window with the white curtains," Pence explained, "Rumor has it that she perished in the mansion after being held prisoner in its walls her whole life, unable to leave because she doesn't know that the world outside its walls exists. And thus, she's unable to escape her rotting prison."

"Uhuh…" Roxas commented, looking up into the window. A familiar face stared back at him.

_Roxas._  The world was engulfed by a white light.

* * *

Roxas glanced around the room. The walls were covered in drawings of Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, and other people from his dreams. A table went across the length of the room.

"How did-" he noticed Naminé sitting on the other end of the table, near the only door in the room, a sketchpad resting in her lap, "Oh, right…"

"Sorry about kidnapping you," Naminé started, "I couldn't speak with you with Pence standing there, and I know you wanted to talk." Roxas glanced to the window, covered by curtains. "Don't worry, as soon as we're done talking I'll put you back. DiZ is too busy dealing with the glitches the invading Nobodies are causing to notice that you're gone. And even if he did, this room is separate from the rest of the simulation. He'll just send Ansem to the Organization's headquarters to retrieve you."

"Glitches, simulation?" Roxas commented. Naminé sighed.

"Please, have a seat," she requested. Roxas pulled out the chair opposite of Naminé, and sat down. "I'm guessing you want answers."

"Yeah, I mean, you're acting like this town is some kind of computer," Roxas started with a chuckle, only to notice Naminé wasn't laughing. "You're joking."

"No… This town is a digital copy of the  _real_  Twilight Town, created by DiZ when Ansem captured you," Naminé explained.

"Captured me?" Roxas remarked. Naminé sighed.

"Let me start from the beginning," she gestured towards a drawing on the wall near Roxas. It depicted a group of figures in black coats. They were facing away from the viewer, and not very detailed, but Roxas recognized the red hair one of the figures, and a mess of spiky, blond hair on another. The fact that they were in the foreground while the other figures were in the background certainly helped.

"This is me and…  _Axel_?" Roxas remarked.

"You two used to be friends," Naminé explained. Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Yeah right," he replied, "Like I'd ever be friends with a creep like him." Naminé sighed.

"You don't have all the context, and I guess that's partially my fault," she replied, "But first, who do you see in the drawing opposite that one?" Roxas glanced at the other wall, and saw a drawing depicting three figures.

"This is Sora," he commented, "And his friends, Donald and Goofy." Naminé grinned and nodded.

"So you recognize them?" she asked.

"Yeah, from my dreams," Roxas answered.

"Not dreams," Naminé replied, "Memories."

"Huh?" Roxas turned to face Naminé

"Just last year, Sora, Donald, and Goofy went on an adventure to save the worlds from darkness," Naminé explained, "Towards the end of that journey, Sora discovered that Kairi's heart was trapped inside his own, and so he was forced to unlock his own heart to set hers free. However, his own heart was lost to darkness as a result, and we were born."

"What?" Roxas asked, jumping to his feet.

"A person comes in three parts," Naminé elaborated, "There's the heart that defines them, the soul that sustains them, and the body that acts for them. Without the soul, the body perishes, but without the heart…" She closed her eyes. "A living, yet empty shell is left behind." Roxas tensed, but then noticed another drawing. One of Sora embracing Kairi. "Kairi's light brought Sora back, but you and I had already formed, you from Sora's body and soul, and I in response to Kairi's heart departing from Sora's body."

"Naminé," Roxas started, "What are you saying?" Naminé sighed.

"Roxas," she started, "You're not supposed to exist." Roxas tensed, and Naminé could tell that she had crossed a line even before he rose from his seat.

" _How can you say that?_ " he shouted.

"I'm sorry, it's what DiZ said," she replied, "I mean, I'm not supposed to exist either, so…" Roxas sighed, and sat back down.

"I guess it's not your fault you're stuck with someone like DiZ," Roxas replied, "But… Why am I here? And what's gonna happen to me?"

"You're the other side of Sora," Naminé explained, glancing over at an image of Sora embracing Kairi, "When Kairi restored Sora, you were still forming, and so you didn't have his memories."

"Then why am I dreaming about them now?" he asked. Naminé looked away from him.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that's my fault," she explained, "An evil man took me in mere minutes after I was born, and I didn't really have a grasp on morality until it was too late."

"Naminé," Roxas asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm a witch, with power over Sora's memories, and the memories of those tied to his heart," she explained, "At least, that's what  _DiZ_  and  _Larxene_  called me." Roxas flinched at seeing so much hatred in Naminé's eyes when she said those names. "I don't know why I have these powers, but all I've managed to do with them is hurt people." She closed her eyes, and Roxas noticed that tears were starting to form in her eyes. "I was an idiot, and messed with Sora's memories, to try and make him think that Kairi was a blond girl named 'Naminé,'" she explained, "I had been alone my whole life, I didn't understand that what I was doing was wrong until it was too late, and so many innocent people were hurt because of my  _stupid mistake_!" She rested her elbows on the table and gripped her head in her hands. "Sora had to go to sleep so I could put his memories back, but the Organization stole his memories, and they found their way into you." Roxas watched as Naminé looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry Roxas, if I hadn't messed up, you wouldn't be in this mess."

"But, why did they steal his memories away?" he asked.

"They didn't want Sora to interfere in their plans," Naminé answered.

"Then why not just destroy him?" Roxas asked.

"Because you and Sora share the same soul," Naminé answered, "If one of you died, the other would perish as well." Roxas crossed his arms.

"Did you, did you mess with my memories?" he asked.

"I'm sorry," Naminé answered, "I needed time to give you the chance to choose, and altering your memory was the only way to get you the time you needed." She her sketchpad to her chest. "But DiZ just saw it as a chance to torture you. I'm sorry Roxas, but I'm going to have to ask you to choose."

"Between what?" Roxas asked.

"Tonight, I'm going to finish piecing together the last of Sora's memories," Naminé explained, "Once I've done that, everyone who forgot Sora will remember him, and Donald and Goofy will be ready to wake up, but…" she sighed. "I'm sorry Roxas, but in order for Sora to wake up, you'll need to return to him." Roxas' blood ran cold.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You and Sora share the same soul," she explained, "You are his body, and he is your heart. You will have to go back to being a part of Sora, like you were before he became a Heartless."

"And what will happen to me if I do that?" he asked.

"'Roxas' will cease to be, and you will become Sora," Naminé explained, "It'll be disorienting, but the memories that are like a forgotten dream will suddenly be like they were your own memories. I don't know how your heart will react to the memories you made as 'Roxas', but it will be like waking up from a dream."

"And if I don't want to become Sora?" Roxas asked.

"Then I'll take you to the King, leave this world behind, and wake up Donald and Goofy," she explained, "If you change your mind, Sora will still be here."

"But why would I want to be Sora?" he asked, "I'm happy as I am now."

"Because Nobodies don't have hearts, we simply fade from existence at the end of our lives," Naminé explained, "Hearts are eternal though, in becoming Sora, you'll become whole." She walked over to Roxas, and placed a hand on his forearm. "I understand that becoming Sora might be scary, especially with how different you two are. I even made a promise to Sora before he went to sleep, but that promise isn't more important than your life." She knelt down with Roxas, so that she was eye-level with him. "I've already hurt a lot of innocent people with my mistakes, I'm not about to hurt you too." Roxas met her gaze and the two stood up.

"Thanks Naminé," he replied, "But, my friends…"

"I'm sorry Roxas, the most I can do is ask the King to see if he can get the simulation from DiZ," she explained, "But I don't think he'll have the means to take you into and out of the world, so regardless, I can only give you one more day with them." Roxas looked towards the window.

"I want to be able to talk with them, after it's all done, to assure them that I'm okay," he replied. Naminé smiled at him.

"Don't worry, the King should have the technology necessary to do that!" she replied. Roxas let out a sigh of relief.

"What about my real memories?" he asked.

"If you return to Sora, I can get to work on those whenever he's asleep," Naminé replied, "If not, then it should only take a week, at most, to put everything back, but it will come at the cost of your memories of this town." Roxas closed his eyes.

"I see…" he replied.

"Roxas," Naminé started, "Why don't you sleep on it?"

"Hmm?"

"Just come back here tomorrow, and then you can tell me what you think," she elaborated, "It's not like either options' really on the table until I can finish putting those memories together anyway." Roxas nodded.

"Alright, so tomorrow it is," he said.

* * *

"Roxas?" Pence cut in, "You okay? You kinda spaced out there for a second!"

"Sorry," Roxas replied, "But I saw her, she's in that window, just like you said, look!" He pointed at the window, but Naminé was gone.

"Oh, it was just a curtain in the wind," Pence commented, "Makes sense, I mean, if she was wandering the whole mansion, someone would've encountered her by now."

_But… I encountered her_ , Roxas thought,  _Still, if she's been trapped her whole life…_

"Let's go to the usual spot," Pence remarked, pulling Roxas from his thoughts, "Hayner and Olette are going to need to hear this if we wanna finish our report." Pence ran off.

"Right… Report…" Roxas sighed. "I wish schoolwork was the worst of my worries." He walked away after Pence.

* * *

"Roxas! Pence!" Olette called as the two entered the Usual Spot, "Since you two did all the hard work investigating, Hayner and I decided to work together on the report! We got the whole thing written out!"

"That's great!" Pence replied, "Oh, by the way, you can add that 'The Lonely Girl' was just a moving curtain."

"Okay I'll let Hayner know," Olette replied.

"Where is Hayner, anyway?" Roxas asked.

"He went to get ice cream," Olette answered, "C'mon, let's meet him by the clocktower!"

The four friends sat on the clocktower, silently eating their ice cream. Well, Hayner, Pence, and Olette were, Roxas simply stared at his own.

…  _Naminé gave me a choice_ , Roxas said,  _I can either give up my identity to become someone else, or flee this town to live on some distant world under the protection of a king_. He glanced over at his friends.  _But no matter what I do, I'll never see them again_. He sighed.  _Naminé probably expects me to return to Sora eventually, but I don't want to disappear! I'm happy the way I am!_

" _Like, you're not supposed to be part of this picture."_

_What did I do to deserve this? I'm still a person! I don't see what makes this 'Sora' more important than me_ , he tightened his grip on his ice cream stick,  _From what I heard, he should've_ died  _last year. Doesn't that make_ him  _the one who's not supposed to exist!_

"Hey, Roxas," Hayner cut in, "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Roxas replied.

"You haven't touched your ice cream," Hayner remarked, "Hey, is this about the ghost train?"

"No," Roxas replied, "Just… My summer vacation's about to end, and I guess I'm kinda down about it." He stared down at the ice cream in his hands. "I mean, this could be my last sunset with you guys." Hayner put a hand on Roxas' shoulder.

"Hey, even if our classes separate us, we'll always be friends," Hayner remarked, "So there's no reason to be anxious, the four of us have a bond that won't be broken so easily."

"Yeah!" Pence added, "I mean, come on! If this weirdness can't split us up, then what're a few classes gonna do?"

"Regardless of what happens, you'll always be our friend," Olette added. Roxas smiled, and wiped away a tear.

"Thanks guys," he replied, a smile on his face.  _Even if I never see you guys again after tomorrow, I'll always cherish these moments we shared._

* * *

DiZ sat in a chair at a broken table, in a dusty room with a torn carpet.

"Why did you show him the train?" Ansem asked as he walked into the room.

"I needed to get Roxas to question its sanity," DiZ replied, "The more pain it endures, the easier it will be to get it to return to Sora." DiZ turned to Ansem, his eye glimmering. "Do you recall Sora?"

"The holes in my memory are starting to fill in," Ansem answered, "But I still don't understand why you're doing this." DiZ's eye vanished as he chuckled.

" _Revenge_ ," DiZ answered, "Now, there's the matter of loose ends."

"Oh?" Ansem replied, "What loose ends?"

"Naminé," DiZ answered, "It has played its part well, but it has outlived its usefulness." His eye's glow intensified. "Once Sora's memory has been fully restored, you are to  _destroy_ it!" He chuckled. "Do what you wish with her, just make sure that the screaming stops before Sora awakens. We don't want him to get the wrong idea now, do we?"

"N-No…" Ansem replied, "We don't."

"Excellent," DiZ continued, his eye dimming slightly, "Now, there's the matter of how to get Sora and Roxas in contact. And I have a plan that should do exactly that…"

* * *

Three figures gathered in a room with thirteen thrones.

"If Axel fails, we're gonna have to fill the empty seats, boss," Number II started, "Our numbers are starting to dwindle."

"And what do you propose we do?" Number VII asked, "In case you forgot, our kind is rare as is."

"The Superior holds power over nothingness, over the concept of nonexistence," Number II answered, "Since our number at Castle Oblivion ceased to exist, they now fall under the Superior's domain." Number II turned to face the Superior. "So what do you say boss? Wanna give raising the dead a spin?" The Superior waved his right hand, and weapons materialized in five of the thrones. A shield in throne IV, an axe-sword in throne V, a book in throne VI, a scythe in throne XI, and a set of knives in throne XII. The superior held out his right hand, and colorless lightning shot out of his fingers and into the five weapons. Each weapon began to float over the thrones, and five hooded figures slowly materialized in their place. The hooded figures blurred and faded, and the figures imploded into dark vortexes, the weapons sucked into them, leaving imprints on the swirling darkness.

"Why only their souls?" Number VII asked.

"Easy, there were traitors among the members sent to Castle Oblivion, but our dear friend Axel won't tell us who they were," Number II answered, "This way, we can use the remnants of their mind for plan B."

"And that is?" Number VII asked.

"Nothing you need to worry about," Number II answered, "Still, we're going to need to keep Sora from interfering in our plans if he does awaken, got any idea what to do?" A green flame floated above the Superior's right palm. Number II grinned. "Well, looks like we've got everything ready for Tomorrow," he replied, "See you both in the morning!" He vanished into the darkness.

"Superior," Number VII opened, "You know that Axel won't follow his orders. We need to eliminate him and send another to retrieve Roxas."

"Any of the others might either destroy or pointlessly antagonize Roxas," the Superior replied, "For once, Axel's delusions of friendship work in our favor. But rest assured, Axel will not leave that simulation alive. Our enemies will not allow it."

"But the Keyblade bearer-"

"Is also expendable," the Superior interrupted, "So long as we have the King, we need not worry what becomes of Roxas and Sora. That said-" he turned to Number II. "-we must also be prepared to ensure the Sora's cooperation in the event that he awakens and comes to learn of our plans. I'm certain that I can trust you to locate his world of origin?"

"Of course, Superior," Number VII replied.

"Then you can begin as soon as we have the results of Axel's mission," the Superior replied, "For now, we must watch, and wait. That is how we've survived this long, and that is how we will be born anew."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yeah, that's the big point of divergence: Naminé giving Roxas the chance to back out instead of trying to convince him to return to Sora, complete with giving him a means of escape should he say no. I mean, okay, there's still this hanging implication that she thinks that would be the right thing to do, but she's not going to try to change his mind if he says no, his consent is important in this procedure. Additionally, I added in that scene with the Organization in order to establish a future plot point. Next chapter will have an even bigger point of divergence, one so big I won't spoil it here.  
> But there is a hint in this chapter as to what that change is, and I look forward to seeing your guesses.


	6. Prologue: The Sixth Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to thetwilightroadtonightfall for beta-reading this chapter as usual. As usual, I will explain myself at the end.

_Sora, Donald, and Goofy stepped out of the cavern, and stared out at the debris-filled void that stood before them, nothing but scattered rocks leading to a swirling vortex._

_"Gawrsh, is that all that's left of the worlds that's taken by the Heartless?" Goofy asked._

_"Those worlds will be restored when we defeat Ansem, right?" Sora asked, "But, if we do beat him and all these worlds become restored and disconnected, what's gonna happen to this place? And to us?"_

 

_"All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end, The heart is no different" Ansem lectured, "You see, darkness is the heart's true essence."_

_"That's not true!" Sora objected as he summoned his Keyblade, "The heart may be weak. And sometimes, it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out!"_

 

_"Kingdom Hearts!" Ansem shouted to the Door to Darkness, "Fill me with the power of darkness!" The Door to Darkness slowly cracked open, and darkness began to leak out from the other side._

_"You're wrong!" Sora shouted, "I know, without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts is light!"_

_A bright light cleared the darkness, and tore through Ansem's body._

 

_"Now Sora!" the King shouted as he held his own Keyblade in the air, "Let's close this door for good!"_

_"Take care of her," Riku requested as the Door to Darkness closed, sealing him in the Realm of Darkness._

_Sora held his Keyblade into the air, and, with help from the King on the other side, locked the Door to Darkness, causing it to vanish from the Realm of Light._

 

_"Kairi!" Sora shouted as he ran over to the piece of the world Kairi was on._

_"Sora!" Kairi shouted. The world split apart, Kairi standing on the beach, and Sora on the stone. Kairi fell over, and Sora caught her arm._

_"Kairi, remember what you said before?" Sora asked, "I'm always with you too. I'll come back to you. I_ _promise!"_

_"I know you will!" Kairi tearfully replied. And the world split apart, separating the two once more._

 

_Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked down the path, surrounded by green fields as far as the eye could see._

_"Well now what do we do?" Donald asked._

_"We've gotta find Riku and King Mickey," Sora answered._

_"But, uh, where do we start lookin' for that there door to the light?" Goofy asked._

_A familiar dog cross their path, a letter in his mouth._

_"Pluto?" Donald asked._

_"Gawrsh, that's the King's seal!" Goofy said as he noticed the seal on the envelope._

_"Hey, have you seen King Mickey?" Sora asked. Pluto answered by running off. "Let's go!" Sora shouted, the trio ran after the King's loyal pet._

 

_Sora looked around the dark path, wondering where the voice he had heard had come from, when he hear someone approaching, and turned around to see a man in a black coat. The man turned and vanished before Sora could catch up with him._

_Sora, Donald, and Goofy came across a massive castle, the land around it barren, the path they had been following having turned into a twisting road of lifeless stone that bridged the gap between the grassy fields and the ominous void._

_Sora opened the doors,̯͍̳̻̣̤̜̀̏͋̄̈̃̔͝͠ ǎ̶̡̩͔̫̬̹̜̦̂̂̑͛͛̕ñ̫͖̦̫̱̎͌̐̽d̷͚͓̣͖̹̫̦̉͆̋̒͒́͜ͅͅ s̶̥̭͓͍̞̤͓͍̹͐͒̌̃̚͝ṯ̝̯͍̩̟̼̹̹̀̅͗̓̕͞ȩ̷͎͔̦͕̓͆͋͋̔͊̐̕͘p̛͖͔͖̞̺̰̪̳͍̏͆̃̽́̔̄́ṕ̢̬̳͈̮͔͓̰̳̀̾̀̀̈́͊̈̕͢e̲̩̘͍̫̟͊́͂͛̑̊͐͐̓̚d̡̛̞̯̠͉̯̻͍̾̔͋͌͐̚͟ i̢̢̻͖̽̔̋̔͆͂͢͢ṇ̬̱͎͖̓̓̿͋̈́̄̽͗̃̐s͔͖͈̠̫̑͆̈̒́͗͌͘͞͡ȉ͉͈̥̺̞͎̠̠̙͚͐̒̂͑̔̅͌d̡͎̯̥̥̺̆̽͑̌̀̂͌ę̛̛̯͔̩̺̌͋̿̒̈̕͘ t̷̝̺̙̟̪̔̉͗͌͡͞ẖ̨͕̭̱̭̒̾̒̐͂̆̎̈̆͝ê̵̡̢̱͎̹̮͔̺̌̏́̾ c̸͖͔̲̠͍̹͙̞͌̇̎̑͂̓͂͊̂ã̶͈̝̺͉̭͉̺̄̽̉̚͠s̵̨͓̙͖͖͔̄̒̄̒̿͡͞ͅͅt̙̱̞͓͍̻͌̀́̓͋ͅl̛̜̯̹̞̼̬͗̎̋͊̅͊́̀̽ë̸̡̹̰̩̥̒̆͂̾̓̊̎͛̊.̯̠͙̞̾͑͗͐̔̌̃͂͢͡_

 

_Roxas marched along the sand in the dark world, clad in his black coat. He approached another figure, the Superior, seated on a stone with glowing cracks, overlooking the dark sea that connected the Dark Margin with the Realm of Light._

_"I've been to see him…" The Superior turned to face Roxas, "He looks a lot like you."_

_"Who are you?" Roxas asked._

 

_Roxas walked into the city square, overlooked by the Memory's Skyscraper. The rain was pouring down, drop after drop hitting his hood, as Neoshadows pulled themselves out of pools of darkness behind him. Soon the creatures had surrounded him. Roxas summoned_ Oathkeeper _to his left hand, then_ Oblivion _to his right. The Neoshadows pounced, and Roxas cut them down one by one. More Neoshadows rose from the ground around Roxas as he backed up against the Skyscraper. By chance, he looked up, and noticed a blind-folded boy with silver hair, illuminated by the heart-shaped moon._

_"Not him again," Roxas growled, "He must be the one who called all these Heartless here." Without a moment's hesitation, he jumped up off the ground, and ran up the side of the Skyscraper, dragging his Keyblades across the face of the building. The Neoshadows attempted to climb after Roxas as the silver-haired youth jumped off the building, and dove after him. When Roxas stepped on the screen adorning Memory's Skyscraper, he threw_ Oblivion _at the silver-haired youth, who effortlessly caught it and passed right by Roxas. Roxas finally reached the top of the Skyscraper, and noticed that the Neoshadows were closing in on the silver-haired youth. "Serves him right," Roxas remarked with a smirk as he turned to face the heart-shaped moon. He began to walk away, but winced as he faintly heard a voice yelling at him from the back of his head. In that moment, he felt a twinge of sympathy for the boy whom had menaced him for months, and ran right back at the edge of the skyscraper, diving right back down to rescue his nemesis from the Heartless._

 

_The second the last Neoshadow fell, Roxas turned to block a strike from the silver-haired youth._

_"What is wrong with you?" Roxas shouted, "I just saved your life!"_

_"Nothing personal," the silver-haired boy replied, "But there's someone far more important than you who I need to save." Roxas deflected the blow, and the silver-haired youth jumped back._

_"You're unbelievable!" Roxas shouted as he pointed_ Oathkeeper _at his nemesis, "I should've let the Heartless take care of you!"_

 

_Roxas and the silver-haired youth clashed, sparks flying each time_ Oathkeeper _and_ Oblivion _struck one another._

 

_The silver-haired youth hit the ground with a thud, Oblivion clattering to the ground next to him. Roxas stood over his blindfolded opponent,_ Oathkeeper  _pointed at the downed warrior's face._

_"Why?" the silver-haired boy started, "Why do you have the Keyblade?"_

_Roxas stared at_ Oathkeeper _, and his fist shook with rage._

_"I don't need to tell you anything!" he shouted, trying to hide the fact that he didn't know the answer himself. He then brought_ Oathkeeper _down, only for his opponent to grab_ Oblivion  _and dash forwards. Roxas cried out in pain as he was knocked off his feet, and landed to the ground with a thud,_ Oathkeeper  _landing in a nearby puddle with a splash. The Roxas looked up, only to find_ Oblivion  _inches from his face..._

 

Roxas groaned as he climbed out of bed. He had a splitting headache, the world was spinning, and for a second he thought he saw Sora's face reflected in the window instead of his own.

"Today's the day..." Roxas sighed, "I need go and see them...one more time." Birds flew past the window as Roxas got ready for the day.

* * *

"Guys, we need to talk," Roxas said as he walked into the Usual Spot. Hayner, Pence, and Olette didn't pay him any mind.

"Guys?" Roxas reached out to Hayner, and his hand went right through him. "What?"

The three friends ran right through Roxas and out of the usual spot. Roxas felt his blood run cold, and he walked over to a familiar photo, the one he and his friends had taken in front of the Mansion before Summer Vacation. He picked it up, and felt the heart Naminé claimed he didn't have drop. Hayner, Pence, and Olette were still there, but Roxas was no longer part of the picture. "Hayner, Pence, Olette…"

Roxas trudged out of the usual spot. "Now what am I supposed to do?"

There were people around the street, but none of them could see or hear him. Nor could they see or hear the Dusks that passed through them, blocking Roxas' route to both the marketplace and the train station. He heard a familiar whoosh and turned around just in time to see Axel step out of a Corridor of Darkness, which closed right behind him.

"Oh, like I didn't already have enough problems as is." Roxas groaned.

"So, DiZ decided to make us all invisible and intangible to the inhabitants of the simulation," Axel remarked , "Well, he might've just done us a favor."

"...Axel?".

"Sorry 'Roxas', but I'm afraid I don't have time to chat," Axel told him, "You see, the Organization doesn't take too kindly to impostors, and you happen to be impersonating our thirteenth." Flames swirled around his hands, materializing into his Chakrams. "So, I'm afraid I'm going to have to wipe you from existence."

Roxas backed away. "But, we're friends, aren't we?" he asked, glancing around as two more Dusks and a creature with wings made of knives joined them.

"Well yes but-" Axel paused, realizing that Roxas said his name. "Hold up, you  _remember_?"

"Yes," Roxas lied, glancing around the street for an escape as the five Nobodies closed in.

"Oh, this is great!" Axel said as he loosened his grip on his weapons, "Wait, first I have to check and be sure. What's our bosses name?"

"Uh…" Roxas froze, letting silence fall between them

"...Figures," Axel sighed, "So, one other thing I forgot to mention." He burst into flame. "I don't like being tricked, program!" The four Dusks pulsated towards Roxas, the knife-bird dove into the ground behind them. "Get him!"

The Keyblade materialized in Roxas' hand, and the Dusks charged. Roxas ducked under the first Dusk's strike. Another grabbed his left arm. He tried to stab it with his Keyblade, but it contorted its body out of the way, allowing another Dusk to grab his right wrist. The blade-like wings of the fifth creature jutted out of the ground, and began slashing ahead of itself repeatedly. Roxas quickly pulled his right arm in front of himself, causing the wing of knives to impale the Dusk instead of himself. One swing of his Keyblade deflected the wings away, causing the bird-like creature to be sent flying, it's body curled into a coin-like shape. It unfurled itself, revealing its body to be stout yet humanoid, before gliding back down to Roxas. Roxas tried to swing his Keyblade at it, but one Dusk wrapped its arms around his legs, while another grabbed his free arm, leaving him helpless as the creature wrapped its whole body around his torso. The Dusks then released Roxas and began to retreat towards the marketplace.

"What's going on?" Roxas asked as the creature began to heat up.

"Oh, the Assassin's about to self-destruct," Axel replied, "Waste of a perfectly good servant Nobody if you ask me, but given your combat prowess, it's the quickest way to end this fight."

Roxas, realizing that the "Assassin" was also starting to expand, grabbed onto it's head with both hands, and pulled. He yanked it off of his body (wincing from the pain as it's wings of blades scraped against his shoulders) and threw its limp body at the retreating Dusks. The Assassin exploded, and several pieces of what appeared to be white-cloth rained were blown away in the wind, gradually dissolving into light. Roxas then turned to face Axel, who merely growled as his coat of flames flared up. Axel pulled back his right arm, ready to throw his Chakram, when he, along with all the people in the town, froze in place. Roxas winced as he felt the air stagnate, and heard a familiar buzzing.

_Roxas, to the mansion!_  DiZ's voice echoed from inside his head. Roxas looked around. Even the flames had frozen. His hand went up to his head.

"Hayner! Pence! Olette!" he shouted, his words echoing across the frozen town.

But nobody came.

* * *

Axel, now alone, dismissed his weapons and extinguished his flames. Roxas had seemingly vanished into thin air.

"So that's how it's gonna be… it looks like my friend is long gone."

He looked towards the marketplace.

"Well, I might as well take care of my secondary objective," Axel mused as he opened a Corridor of Darkness, "If I can't save Roxas, I might as well avenge him."

He vanished into the Corridor, and the street was empty once more.

* * *

Running through town had been disorienting. While he could see the Townspeople, they couldn't see him, and his pursuers passed through them like ghosts. There was one comforting thought going through his head the entire time, however.

_Naminé said she'd help me escape if I wanted to_ , Roxas recalled, _I just have to get to her room in the mansion!_

By the time he arrived, however, the gates were still shut, and the chains wrapped around it where held tight by a giant lock. And to make matters worse, five more Dusks dropped in behind him.

"Don't call me and then lock me out..." Roxas grumbled as he turned towards his attackers and summoned his Keyblade. Then, almost as if the Keyblade was shoving the moment in his face, he recalled a moment from his dreams, when Sora had used the Keyblade on a giant Keyhole. "I wonder..."

Roxas jumped away from the gate, and pointed his Keyblade at the lock. He repositioned the weapon so it's teeth were facing the ground, and the tip of the Keyblade began to glow. Without his prompting, a beam of light flew out of the Keyblade and into the lock. The lock and chains faded into pixels, and the gates opened. Roxas ran right into the mansion, and the Dusks propelled themselves after him. It was at that moment that Ansem materialized from a Corridor of Darkness, blocking the Dusks.

"I'm afraid I can't let you go any further," he remarked as he summoned a bat-wing sword. The Dusks bent over backwards to pull themselves away from him, twisted into the ground, then sprung off the ground to pounce on him.

Roxas stared around the old mansion's foyer. There was a model of a castle in the middle, the glass of the casing broken, and a chandelier seemed to have fallen from the ceiling some time ago.

"Let's see, if Naminé was in the upper right window, then her room would have to be there too!" Roxas remarked, before dashing up the stairs, "I just hope she'll keep her promise."

Roxas stepped into the white room and closed the door behind him. His eyes scanned the room, and he walked all the way to the back of the room.

"Naminé?" he called out. He soon reached the other end of the room, and noticed a drawing he hadn't seen the previous day. It seemed to depict a blond figure in a black coat ( _That looks kinda like me_ , Roxas noted) standing before a blue structure of some sort. It was at that point that the buzzing sound intensified, growing loud enough to physically hurt Roxas. He screamed and fell to his knees, his hands flying up to his head, but the buzzing sound seemed to be coming from inside his own mind. Then, in spite of the noise trying to drown them out, the memories flooded right back into his head.

 

_Roxas walked down the street in the dark city, passing right by Axel._

_"Your mind's made up?" Axel asked._

_"Why did the Keyblade choose me?" Roxas asked, "I have to know."_

_"You can't turn on the Organization!" Axel snapped, "They'll destroy you!"_

 

The buzzing stopped. Roxas let go of his head, and turned to face Naminé, whom was sitting at the other end of the table.

"Organization XIII," Roxas commented, "They're a bad group!"

"Bad, or good, I don't know," Naminé replied, "They're incomplete people, who long to be whole. To that end, they're desperately searching for something."

"And what's that?"

"Kingdom Hearts," Naminé answered, "So, you've made your choice?"

"Yes," Roxas answered as he walked over to the table, "I'm happy with who I am, I just want to live my life, without DiZ."

Naminé flinched. "I understand," she replied, "Sora wouldn't want you to return to him against your will, and if he would, well, you probably wouldn't have been born in the first place."

She set her sketchpad on the table. "Come over here and take my hand, the Organization wouldn't dare enter Yen Sid's domain. If we're careful, we should be able to hide in his tower until the King comes," she stood and held her hand out to him, "Sora will be here if you change your mind, but I can wake up Donald and Goofy now that Sora's memory's been put back together. Roxas ran over to Naminé.

"I'm ready to go when you are," Roxas replied as he took Naminé's hand in his own. Naminé smiled, blushing slightly, but held out a hand to open a Corridor of Darkness.

It was at that moment when everything went wrong.

Naminé shrieked as her body pixelated, doubling over in pain as her physical form seemed to pulsate.

"Naminé!"

"Impudent witch!" DiZ shouted as he materialized out of ones and zeroes, "I suppose I shouldn't be shocked at your betrayal."

"Roxas either goes back willingly, or not at all!" Naminé replied through gritted teeth, "Promise, or no promise, I know Sora would agree with me if he was here."

DiZ replied by kicking Naminé in the face.

"Leave her alone!" Roxas shouted as he summoned his Keyblade. DiZ simply grabbed Naminé by the arm and held her in front of him.

"One more step and I break its neck," he growled as his hand went to his hostage's throat.

Roxas growled, but dismissed his Keyblade."She is not an it!"

"You can hold on to those delusions as long as you want, they won't save you," DiZ replied.

A Corridor of Darkness opened by the door, and Ansem stepped out of it. "DiZ, I can't hold the Nobodies off any longer!" he shouted.

"So be it, just take Roxas to Sora, and let Sora's heart do the rest," DiZ replied as Naminé struggled to pull herself free.

"H-Help me!" she cried out.

"Silence!" DiZ snapped, squeezing Naminé's neck. She gasped out in pain, her hand flying up to try and pry DiZ's fingers from her neck.

"Stop hurting her!" Roxas shouted as his fingers curled into fists.

"What are you doing?" Ansem shouted, Roxas confused by the look of anger on his face.

"I ordered you to dispose of Naminé as soon as its job was done," DiZ answered, "It was about to take Roxas away and ruin all our hard work by bringing that childish rodent into this mess."

Ansem's fingers curled into fists.

"Let Naminé go!" Roxas shouted.

"R-Roxas, I'm sorry," Naminé spoke through her tears, before turning to Ansem, "L-Listen to me! If you want to prove me wrong, then get Roxas away from here, please!"

DiZ tightened his grip on her throat.

"That's enough, DiZ!" Ansem shouted, summoning his sword, "She doesn't need to die!"

"And here I was, thinking I had taught you everything there is to know about Naminé's kind," DiZ replied as he loosened his grip, letting Naminé breathe, "You've come so far, and yet still you understand nothing!"

" _Naminé!_ "

"I'm sorry, Roxas," she replied, "Don't worry about me, just save yourself! If I can get out of here, then I promise I'll try and find you! Then, when we meet again, I'll tell you everything you want to know!"

"That is ENOUGH!" DiZ shouted, clamping his hand over her mouth, "Ansem! Prove you aren't completely worthless and bring Roxas to Sora! I'll resolve our little Nobody problem myself!" He and Naminé vanished into a cloud of ones and zeroes. Roxas turned to face Ansem.

"Nothing personal, Roxas," Ansem remarked as he dismissed his sword and crossed his arms, "I just can't afford to let you escape."

His guardian materialized behind him.

"Well, feel free to take every single strike personally," Roxas replied as he fell into a fighting stance, "Because I don't plan to let you walk away this time,  _Ansem!_ "

 

"I've beaten you at your best, what hope do you have now?" Ansem asked as his Guardian threw a punch at Roxas. Roxas jumped back to avoid the swing, but the Guardian proceeded to backhand him, sending him flying across the room. Roxas closed his eyes as he saw Ansem closing in on him.

Ansem lifted the boy up by his shoulder. "This is too easy," he remarked. It was then that he noticed Roxas smirk, and he quickly dropped Roxas and floated back. "Come, Guardian!"

The Guardian teleported in front of its master as Roxas' strike uselessly deflected off its shoulder.

"Attack!" Ansem ordered.

The Guardian swiped at Roxas, who ran for the door. Ansem teleported in front of him.

"Out of my way!" Roxas shouted, slashing his Keyblade across Ansem's chest. Ansem bit back a scream. Roxas had only scratched him, but it stung painfully. It was then that he noticed Roxas was prepping a follow-up swing, and was much closer to him this time.

"Come, Guardian!" he called, panicking as the blade got closer to his torso. The Guardian deflected the strike. "Grab him!"

The Guardian knocked Roxas off his feet with a left-hook, then teleported behind Roxas to grab him, pinning his arms to his sides.

Ansem floated right up to Roxas' face. "Give up, you cannot defeat the inevitable." Roxas winced as he struggled to break free, the Guardian's grip tightening on him.

"There has to be something I can do…" Roxas mumbled, as the Keyblade began to glow.

 

_Kingdom Hearts is light!_

 

"That's it!" Roxas remarked, as his Keyblade began to glow, "Everyone else in the Organization had special powers."

"What?" Ansem replied, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Roxas grinned as the light spread across his own body."I just remembered what my power was. LIGHT!"

The burst of light repelled both Ansem and his Guardian. The man bounced painfully off of the wall by the door, and his Guardian materialized behind him to catch him.

"How can you use the light?!" Ansem asked, "You don't have a heart!"

"Bold words for someone as cruel as you," Roxas snapped as he charged at his weakened opponent. He delivered one, two, three strikes with his Keyblade, before striking Ansem in the head for good measure. The Guardian vanished as Ansem fell to his knees.

* * *

DiZ stepped out of the machine next to the computer, Naminé kicking and thrashing to try and break free.

"I have had enough of your rebellion, witch!" DiZ snapped, before throwing Naminé against a wall. He ignored the bang he heard, and the thud that Naminé's body made when it hit the floor. He chuckled as he took his seat by the computer, "Now, this should solve our little Nobody problem right here and now." He highlighted multiple files on the computer.

"N-No," Naminé gasped out, before losing consciousness.

"Say goodbye to your home, Roxas!" DiZ said with a laugh as he pressed the delete key.

* * *

"Where's Naminé, and what did you say to convince her to trust you?" Roxas asked, pointing his Keyblade at Ansem's throat. He was interrupted by a loud buzzing sound. "Huh?"

Ansem took that moment to vanish into a Corridor of Darkness, cutting his losses.

* * *

A wall of light formed around the old mansion, and released a wave of entropy. The wave erased the ground, trees, and walls, leaving a buzzing void in its place. It washed over the town, buildings and streets collapsing.

* * *

Seifer, Raijin, Fuujin, and Vivi were busy training in the sandlot when they were wiped away.

 

Biggs and Jessie were setting up shop in the marketplace as their bodies dissolved into nothing.

 

Elmyra was petting Chiro when the two of them were pulled apart and erased by the wave.

 

Hayner, Pence, and Olette were an a train, on their way to the beach.

"I can't believe we're finally gonna make it to the beach!" Hayner declared.

"Still, I can't help but feel like we're forgetting something," Pence replied.

"You too?" Olette replied, "Well, whatever it is, it can probably wait for when we get back from the beach."

The train, and everyone on it, faded from existence. Hayner, Pence, and Olette were no more.

* * *

Roxas stood in shock as he watched through the window the town vanish.

"All of your 'friends' are dead, husk!" DiZ gloated, his voice echoing through the whole mansion, "Where will you go now?"

"I'll...I'll  _kill_  you!" Roxas roared. DiZ laughed.

"You'll have to find me first!" he taunted, "Just try and find me!" The buzzing stopped, and the mansion fell silent.

"Hayner. Pence. Olette..." Roxas fell to his knees, tears rolling down his cheeks, "I'll make him pay, I promise you!"

He rose to his feet, and his eyes fell on Naminé's sketchpad. He rushed over and picked it up off the table. There was a drawing of a circular shape on the front, with three symbols in little rings around it: The Heartless symbol, a crown, and an inverted splintered heart.

"Naminé, hang in there for me, okay?" He dashed out of the room, sketchpad in hand.

 

Roxas searched every room of the mansion, the one building left in the whole world. He tore the place apart, looking for some hint as to where Naminé was, and cutting down the Dusks, Creepers, and Assassins that dared to get in his way. Eventually, on the bottom floor, he found a library. A unicorn statue inexplicably sat in the middle of one of the bookshelves, staring at a table in the middle of the room.

"Strange," Roxas remarked, "The floor has a different pattern by this wall with the door than the rest of the room." He walked over to the table, and noticed a familiar shape. He walked up to the table and placed Naminé's sketch-pad next to the shape on the table.

"The only difference is the lack of symbols," he noted. He ran back to Naminé's room, and returned with a crayon,filling in the shapes around the circle in the middle, drawing a Heartless symbol, a crown, and the inverted splintered-heart. The shape began to glow, as did the table, and the floor. Roxas grabbed Naminé's sketches, and ran to the wall, where the different-patterned floor wasn't glowing. The floor vanished behind him, revealing a hidden floor, with a staircase leading down to it.

Roxas walked down the stairs, glancing at the metallic walls, with brand-new circuitry, and technology that clashed with the rest of the rotting mansion. He noticed a mechanical door, which slid open.

"Naminé, DiZ," Roxas started, "Here I come!"

* * *

The next room Roxas stepped into had numbers and data projected on the wall, and monitors all over the place. There were purple monitors from the direction he came from, but what grabbed his attention was a computer with several green monitors, and three green Keyboards. He walked up to the computer, but winced as he felt more memories pouring into his head.

 

_Thirteen figures gathered into a round room with thirteen thrones. The Superior sat in the tallest throne, and Roxas sat in the throne opposite to him._

 

_Roxas fled the Organization's headquarters, a squadron of Dusks flying after him._

 

_"C'mon Sora, I thought you were tougher than that," the silver-haired youth taunted. Roxas growled, and held out his right hand._

_"For the last time..."_ Oblivion  _vanished from the silver-haired boy's hand, and materialized in Roxas' own, "My name is **Roxas**!"_

_The other boy barely had enough time to react before Roxas pushed himself to his feet, and drove_ Oblivion  _into his adversary's heart._

_"No…" he gasped out, "Sora… Nami-"_

_Roxas pulled out_ Oblivion _, and summoned_ Oathkeeper _back to his hand as his opponent dropped to the ground, a pool of darkness forming under his unmoving body. Roxas walked away, towards the castle, not paying the downed warrior any mind._

_"You just made a big mistake, Nobody," a deep voice remarked. Roxas turned to face the newcomer, but cried out in pain as a massive hand grabbed hold of him, a demon-like creature's golden eyes staring right back at him, and Ansem standing where the other boy had fallen, scowling at Roxas._

_"It's over."_

 

_"Will it work?" a voice asked._

_"If we can maintain the simulated town until Naminé finishes piecing together Sora's memories, we should be fine," another answered._

_"What'll happen to Roxas?" the first asked._

_"It holds half of Sora's power, and all of his memories," the second replied, "It's high time Roxas gave those back."_

_"Poor thing," the first remarked as Roxas slowly opened his eyes. The voice belonged to a hooded man._

_"It's the fate of all Nobodies. It should be grateful for the grace period," the second voice, that of a bandaged man's, replied, "Of course, in the meantime, we'll have to give it new memories, to ensure it's cooperation."_

_"No," Roxas croaked out as he pushed himself up, "I won't let you-"_

_"Goodbye, Roxas!" the bandaged man interrupted, pressing a key on his Keyboard. Roxas cried out as he felt something hit him, and the world pixelated. The pixels broke apart, and the world collapsed in cacophony of noises and lights as Roxas felt his entire body warp into a new form._

_"What's… happening… to me?" Roxas asked. He stared at his hands, and watched his black coat and gloves break apart into pixels. "N-No… I don't wanna disappear! Axel! Help me! Axel!_ Axel _!"_

 

Roxas released his head as the pain subsided. He walked over to the Keyboard.

"Maybe I can use this to escape?" he wondered. He touched the Keyboard, and screamed. He was blasted across the room from the force, and he heard DiZ's laughter echoing inside his head.

_You will never be free_ , DiZ's voice taunted from the back of his head,  _Just give up, and go back to where you belong,_ husk _!_

Roxas rose to his feet, his entire body aching, and the Keyblade in his right hand.

"I won't be your prisoner anymore, DiZ!" he screamed as he ran at the computer. He brought his Keyblade down on one monitor, then another, smashing through screens and keyboards, screaming as he hacked and slashed that the vile contraption that DiZ had used to toy with him all week. Eventually, the computer was reduced to smoking circuits, twisted metal, and broken glass. Roxas dropped to his knees, and another door, leading deeper into the mansion, opened.

"Nowhere to go but forward," he heaved, walking deeper into DiZ's lab.

 

The next room was seemingly empty, but something felt off. Roxas summoned his Keyblade, and five Dusks dropped in.

"I don't have time for you!" he shouted as he ran at them. He ducked under the one in the middle, and cut it in half. Leaned out of the two to his right and left, ducking and dodging between their flailing limbs until they tangled each other up. Sliced through all four of them as four Creepers dropped in.

One of them flew at Roxas, who cut it in half, while the remaining three turned into a sword, shield, and lance respectively. The lance flew into the air, and Roxas' quick footwork was the one thing that stopped him from being impaled. When he slashed at the lance, the shield blocked his blow, and the sword sliced at Roxas' neck. Roxas dodged and the shield and lance morphed back into their true forms. He pierced both of them with his Keyblade, then slashed through the sword when it tried to make a follow-up slash.

An Assassin lashed onto Roxas' back as another one's wings shot out of the ground and slashed at him. The blond flinched as the creature sliced at his legs, and fell back at the swelling Assassin on his back. He reached back behind his head to grab the Assassin's, and yanked it off his back, throwing it onto the floor. The blast sent the second Assassin flying, and Roxas was able to finish it off with a single blow, wincing somewhat from the pathetic whimper it made as it faded. He paused as he heard clapping.

"Good work Roxas, I wasn't sure if you had it in you," Axel praised as Roxas turned to face him.

"Axel! You're okay!" Roxas shouted, tears in his eyes as the Keyblade faded, DiZ didn't delete all of my friends after all! A lot of that elation began to subside when he noticed the look on Axel's face.

"Oh, so you really remember me this time, do ya?" Axel sneered as the air in the room slowly heated up, "I'm so FLATTERED!"

Roxas jumped as flames erupted from the floor, trapping him in a circle with Axel, and the metallic floor slowly turned red. "Nice try,  _DiZ_!" Axel shouted as he let the fire spread up his own body, " _But I won't fall for the same trick twice!_ "

Realizing he wasn't going to get out of this situation without a fight, Roxas summoned  _Oblivion_  to his right hand, and  _Oathkeeper_  to his right.

" _Two?_ " Axel threw his arms out to his sides, and his chakrams materialized from the flames."C'mere, I'll make it all stop!"

He shot a blast of flames into the floor. Roxas watched with horror as the floor began to melt.

_I have to extinguish the floor! But how?_  Roxas was pulled out of his thought process as Axel threw a blazing chakram at his face. He barely escaped getting his head incinerated by rolling across the floor, but winced from the blistering heat. Axel ran at Roxas and tried to slice at him with his other chakram. Roxas deflected it with  _Oblivion_  and when the one Axel threw came back, he batted it away with  _Oathkeeper_.

"Does this ring any bells, imposter!" Axel asked, before blasting Roxas into the air with a pillar of flame. Roxas cried out from the pain, but hastily raised  _Oathkeeper_  to block when Axel jumped into the air above him. To avoid burning himself on the melting floor, Roxas stabbed  _Oblivion_  into the ground and catapulted away from it, but still winced from the way the fire burned his feet through his shoes.

"Axel, c'mon, it's really me, I promise!" Roxas shouted as he batted away another barrage of flames.

"Oh sure, and I'm Ansem the Wise!" Axel replied, "What kind of idiot do you take me for?" He charged at Roxas, his chakrams rolling across the ground after him. Roxas ducked and leaned out of the way of the chakrams, but his skin and clothes were still burned by the flames.

_I can't go on like this_ , Roxas thought as the flames started to turn some of his sweat into steam,  _I need to think of something, and fast!_

Both of the chakrams flew right back at Axel, who effortlessly caught them.

"Time to finish you off!" Axel shouted as he leaped into the air, "BURN, BABY!" Roxas jumped back as Axel burst into even more flame and hit the ground, sending fire in all directions. Rather than get close to Axel, Roxas threw _Oathkeeper_ at him, sending his old friend into the air.

"What?!"

"Sorry, Axel," Roxas said before jumping back and striking him with  _Oblivion_ , followed by summoning  _Oathkeeper_  and hitting him with that as well. Axel knocked Roxas away with a blast of hot air, but Roxas was able to stop at the wall of flame.  _Oathkeeper_  and  _Oblivion_  both lit up, and Roxas propelled himself off the wall of flame, and knocked Axel into the ground.

"LIGHT!"

Axel screamed as he was consumed by the light, and the floor itself began to flicker and pixelate, before returning to its pre-molten state. Axel picked himself off the floor, his coat in tatters.

"Axel, c'mon," Roxas begged, tears in his eyes, "I'm still me!"

That seemed to snap Axel out of his daze.

"I'm real tired of your lies,  _impostor_!" he roared, before charging at Roxas, his whole body ablaze. Roxas threw _Oblivion_ at Axel's legs, tripping him, then ran at Axel, and slashed through him with _Oathkeeper_.

"R-Roxas…" Axel fell to the floor, and slowly, the flames died down.

 

_"You can't turn on the Organization!" Axel snapped, "They'll destroy you!"_

_"No one would miss me," Roxas replied as he walked away._

_"That's not true," Axel objected, "I would..."_

 

"Axel…" Roxas whimpered as he fell to his knees by his friend's side, _Oathkeeper_ and _Oblivion_ fading away, "I'm sorry, I didn't want this to happen!"

Axel laid on the ground, the flames on his body disappearing as black wisps floated up from his broken and battered body.

"Roxas… It really is you," Axel winced, and with great effort, held up his left hand, opening a Corridor of Darkness, "Listen, Roxas you gotta get out of here while you still can. The Organization will take you back, but you can't let them know that you remember."

Roxas picked up Axel's right hand, holding it in his own."Let's meet again, in the next life."

Axel chuckled."Silly...Just because you have a next life-"

He vanished before he could finish his sentence, the flames lingering behind him, but died down shortly after. Roxas stared at his hands, watching as Axel's own faded away, and after a few moments, he broke down sobbing.

_Hayner, Pence, Olette, Axel…_ He had never felt more alone than in that one moment.

Roxas was snapped out of his mourning when the metal door opposite of the one he had entered through slid open. Roxas starred at the door, and then back at the Corridor Axel had opened for him.

"I could use this Corridor to escape from DiZ, and live out the rest of my life without fear of the Organization, but-" he looked back at the door that had just opened, "-Naminé still needs me.I still have one friend left, and I don't plan to let her down too!" Determined, he wiped his tears away and ran for the door.

* * *

The next room was a hallway, with pods lining the walls. Most of them were empty, but two of them held two figures Roxas recognized from his dreams.

"Donald? Goofy?" Roxas ran up to the pods, "But, shouldn't they be in the real Twilight Town? Unless…no. I can't let myself get distracted - Naminé needs me!"

Roxas ran to the end of the hallway, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling the empty pods lining the walls gave him.

 

At the end of the hall was a blindingly white room, empty save for three occupants: A white pod similar to the ones from the previous room, a console of some sort that was hooked up to the pod, and DiZ.

"Welcome Roxas, I wasn't expecting you to be so easily fooled!" DiZ remarked as the door behind Roxas vanished in a flash of ones and zeroes, sealing them inside the room.

"I'm only going to ask this once, DiZ," Roxas replied through gritted teeth, "Where. Is. Naminé?"

DiZ laughed, his eyes beginning to glow.

"I am a servant of the world, and Naminé one of my many tools," he answered, "Now that Sora's memories have been pieced back together, I had no further use for it. So I did what anyone would do with a useless tool, and discarded it."

The glow in DiZ's eye intensified. "Not to worry though, Roxas, I can still use you for one more job before it's your turn!"

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Roxas growled as he summoned his Keyblade, "Because I'm not laughing!"

Roxas charged DiZ with a scream, but was met with nothing but a buzzing sound as he slashed through him. "Huh?"

DiZ laughed."Terribly sorry Roxas, but you see, I'm not really here. You see, I've only entered the simulation twice today, once to retrieve Naminé, and before that, to code a encryption of my own thoughts into your data. It was the best way to ensure your cooperation in a worst case scenario, and how I was alerted to Naminé's interference in the first place. However, it would appear as though your own expectations interacted with my data in unexpected ways. In short, I am nothing more than a hallucination, a product of your own feeble, broken mind trying to comprehend my own greatness."

Roxas didn't care, and struck out against this fake DiZ again, and again, and again. He continued to hack and slash at the hallucination, screaming, laughing, and crying, until he could finally see the empty air he was actually hacking through. At that point, the console lit up, and projected an image, a hologram of DiZ.

"Are you quite done yet?" DiZ asked.

Roxas pointed his Keyblade at the hologram. "I hate you so much!"

"You should share some of that hatred with Sora," DiZ goaded, "He's far too nice for his own good."

"You can't keep me prisoner forever!" Roxas snapped, "I'll get out of here eventually!"

"Oh trust me, you will," DiZ replied, "As part of Sora! You see, this pod is what connects him to the simulation. In fact, this part of the simulation is actually inside a computer directly connected to Sora's heart. In short, once that pod opens, you will be put in direct contact with Sora's heart, and I can finally put my own plans in motion."

"In other words, I just have to smash that pod to foil all your plans!" Roxas replied, "Good to know!"

DiZ chuckled, and his hologram flickered and vanished. Roxas charged at the pod, screaming and raising his Keyblade to strike. The pod itself cracked open, and the Keyblade vanished from Roxas' hands before he could bring it down. "Wh-what?"

The pod opened up the rest of the way, and Roxas felt all of his energy getting pulled from his body. Exhaustion began to overtake him, and he fell to his knees. "N-no… I'm not ready for my summer vacation to end!"

His eyes fell on the boy sleeping in the pod as he struggle to push himself off the floor.

"Sora… You… This is your fault!" he spat, "I'll never forgive you for this!"

The strength left his arms and Roxas fell to the floor. "I promise you...I will keep fighting back against you. I will weather down your will more and more, until I can finally take back control of my life! Even if I have to destroy your heart to do it!"

His body began to glow before breaking apart into bits of light, and each and every particle was pulled into Sora.

* * *

_I will never forget. I will never forgive. As long as I can hold on to my memories -my anger, my sorrow, my hatred -I can keep fighting back! This is far from over, Sora! My shadow will drag your heart back into darkness! Then...then I'll be able to take my life back! You may have won this round, Sora! **But mark my words, I will win this war!**_

* * *

**~The Gray Area~**

* * *

Six hooded figures gathered in the round room with thirteen thrones.

"Axel is no more, and Roxas has been assimilated," the Superior began, "Soon, the Keyblade Wielder will awaken."

"So the traitors have both been dealt with," Number III remarked, "Regardless, a Keyblade's a Keyblade."

"Perhaps, but this one is not under our control," Number X replied, "Utilizing such a wild card in our plans is a risky gamble, but one that could reap the most rewards."

"Is it really a good idea though?" Number IX asked, "I mean, wouldn't it be smarter to turn Sora into a Heartless and recruit Roxas back into our ranks?"

"To do that, we would have to turn Sora before he completely assimilates Roxas' memories," Number VII answered, "For that matter, it could be trouble if Sora learns of our existence through Roxas."

"Didn't you listen to Axel the other day, Roxas didn't remember a thing," Number II replied, "Sora can't use memories he doesn't have, X-face!"

"There is nothing to worry about," the Superior reassured, "Regardless of whether or not Roxas remembers, I do know this: Even if he has been returned to Sora, he is not one to give up so easily. If this union was not consensual on Roxas' part, he and Sora will be locked in a permanent battle for control, neither one able to truly live so long as the other still 'exists' in their shared body. We must capitalize on this struggle, in order to ensure that Sora remains useful to our plans, without getting in the way of them."

He smirked when no further questions were raised. "Meeting adjourned."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... So... Yeah... Welp, first of all, I figured I would explain this right now: That Light thing Roxas did is what I imagine the Reaction Command for the Ansem battle would be, but it would drain all of Roxas' MP and could only be used when he has full MP. With that out of the way, as promised Here's what our main characters for this prologue symbolize: Roxas is innocence corrupted by cruelty (hence why he lashes out at someone who doesn't deserve it), Ansem what happens when one only views the world in black and white, DiZ the cruelty that results from one who believes himself to be above good and evil, and Namine is actually the one who best understands "The Gray Area". As for why I killed off Axel? Well, everything he did in KH2 could more logically be accomplished by other characters, so I decided to "trim the fat" so to speak.  
> But next time, we'll begin chapter 1. I'll see you guys then.

**Author's Note:**

> "Auntie Elmyra" as the candy-shop lady's name was taken from the novelization. The KH2 novelization might be one of the worst pieces of literature ever written, but that was a legitimately adorable moment. Biggs being a jerk is something I wasn't expecting, it just kinda happened and I decided to run with it.  
> As for why people noticed that the word was missing? Because it was kinda stupid that they didn't in canon.  
> Also, if you're wondering why the thief was described in such grotesque terms, I watched a bunch of Silent Hill videos before writing this chapter, and channeled some of my disgust from the animation of a late-game enemy that still gives me chills whenever I look at it. I wanted to create a feeling of wrongness from the way it moves and acts.


End file.
